I heard Bo Diddley died. True?

He had a heart attack but was stable to what I heard.

oh good

Richard Jewell, the Centennial Olympic Park security guard once suspected — but later cleared — in the bombing of the park during the 1996 Summer Games, was found dead Wednesday in his home in Meriwether County. He was 44.

County coroner Johnny Worley said Jewell's wife discovered him dead in their Woodbury home at about 10:30 a.m., and he was pronounced dead by Worley about 45 minutes later.

Worley said an autopsy would be performed by the GBI to determine how Jewell died, but added there was "no suspicion of foul play.

"He had been having some pretty serious medical problems," Worley said.

He said Jewell had been diagnosed with diabetes in February and had a couple of toes amputated.

"He had been going downhill ever since," Worley said.

Jewell returned to his job as a deputy with the Meriwether County Sheriff's Office over the summer, "but only for a couple of days," according to Worley.

Jewell was initially lauded as a hero after a bomb went off at the July 27, 1996, Olympic celebration. He called attention to the suspicious knapsack that held a bomb and helped evacuate the area.

But days later he became the FBI's chief suspect, as The AJC and other media outlets reported.

The FBI later cleared Jewell of any wrongdoing. He was never charged with a crime.

Eric Robert Rudolph pleaded guilty to the bombing in 2005 and is serving life in prison for it and other attacks.

After he was cleared, Jewell sued the Journal-Constitution and other media outlets for libel, arguing that their reports defamed him. Several news organizations settled, including NBC and CNN.

The Journal-Constitution did not settle. The newspaper has contended that at the time it published its reports, Jewell was a suspect, so the articles were accurate. The newspaper also has asserted that it was not reckless or malicious in its reports regarding Jewell. Much of Jewell's case was dismissed last year. One claim, based on reports about a 911 call, is pending trial.

After the Olympics, Jewell worked as a law officer in a handful of small Georgia cities, including Luthersville, Senoia and Pendergrass.

A year ago this month, Jewell was commended by Gov. Sonny Perdue at an event marking the 10th anniversary of the bombing.

"The bottom line is this: His actions saved lives that day," said Perdue. "Mr. Jewell, on behalf of Georgia, we want to thank you for keeping Georgians safe and doing your job during the course of those Games."

Jewell, his voice choked with emotion, responded:

"I never sought to be a hero. I have always viewed myself as just one of the many trained professionals who simply did his or her job that tragic night. I wish I could have done more."

Good 'ole Texas justice will prevail...

Obituary: Jane Tomlinson

Though terminally-ill with cancer, Jane Tomlinson raised more than £1.5 million for charity by running in three London Marathons, several triathlons and The Great North Run.

Together with her brother she also cycled from John O'Groats to Land's End and from Rome to Leeds.

Jane Tomlinson's life changed forever when, in 1991, she was first diagnosed as having breast cancer.

Though she underwent a mastectomy, the cancer returned and in 2000 she was told that it was terminal.

Even though her cancer was incurable, Jane Tomlinson refused to give in, preferring instead to undertake a series of challenges which would normally tax even the most physically fit person.

Gruelling bike ride

2002 saw the mother of three, from Rothwell near Leeds, complete three major sporting events.

Even though she was in great pain - especially in her bones, neck, hips, back and shoulders - she took part in the London Marathon in April, a triathlon in August and, along with her husband, the Great North Run in October.

After the Great North Run, Jane Tomlinson announced that she would not be running any more races.

She said that she would be concentrating on her medical treatment, and spending time with her husband Mike and children Suzanne, Rebecca and Steven.

But, in March 2003, she set out, together with her brother Luke, on a 1060 mile bike ride from John O'Groats to Land's End, stopping twice en route to receive chemotherapy.

Arriving at the finish, Jane Tomlinson could not contain her delight. It has been brilliant, " she said.

"I am absolutely thrilled. I can't believe we are actually here. There have been some tricky moments on the way but we have just enjoyed it all."

Her own laboratory

And, almost unbelievably, days after finishing the journey, she completed a second London Marathon before returning to work as a paediatric radiographer.

But more was to come. She completed the gruelling UK Half Ironman triathlon competition in the autumn before collecting her MBE from the Queen at Buckingham Palace in October.

All in all, she raised more than £1.5 million for Cancer Research UK and other charities.

In recognition of her efforts, the laboratory at Cancer Research UK's Clinical Centre at St James's Hospital in Leeds, was re-named the Jane Tomlinson Laboratory in May 2003.

Speaking at the time, Jane Tomlinson said, "I know that my situation means that there is little to benefit me from research, but I thought if I could raise some money, I could help other people in the future.

"It's great to know that all this research is taking place in my home city and I am especially pleased to be associated with this particular lab."

Mrs Tomlinson also won a number of high profile awards, including The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year and BBC Sports Personality of the Year's Helen Rollason Award.

She was also voted the UK's most inspirational woman in 2003.

In November 2004, she became the only cancer patient to complete a full Ironman triathlon, a daunting feat comprising a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile cycle ride followed by a 26 mile marathon.

And in the summer of 2006, she crossed the United States, from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge to Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.

On finishing the ride, she admitted, "I thought it was going to be a bit of an adventure but it turned out to be a bit of an ordeal."

But, despite her smiles at the end of her journey, the mammoth feat - 63 days on a bike, covering 3,700 miles - had left her seriously ill.

She was also disappointed that a lack of interest from the US media meant she only raised £100,000, well short of her expectations.

Early in 2007 it was announced that Jane was now too ill to undertake any further challenges but she did organise and wave off a 10km road race in Leeds.

She was awarded the CBE in the Queen's Birthday honours in June 2007.

Jane Tomlinson always looked upon herself as just an ordinary woman with cancer but her extraordinary tenacity touched the lives of people around the world.

Wikipedia is reporting that Miyoshi Umeki has died and the only link is to a small Missouri newspaper. You would think an Oscar winning actor would get something more. She played Mrs. Livinsgton in 'The Courtship of Eddie's Father' and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for 1957's 'Sayonara'.

Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) passed away suddenly Tuesday night, according to his office. No other details were immediately available. He was 68.

According to an inter-conference email obtained by The Hill, Gillmor did not show up to the office this morning causing his staff to become concerned. When they went to his apartment to check on him, they found that the lawmaker had passed away.

Capitol Police is currently investigating, but sources believe that the 10-term lawmaker may have had a heart attack.

Steve Fossett.

Let's be realistic.

Let's be operatic...

MSNBC just had a breaking news alert in which they reported that famed
tenor Luciano Pavarotti is in "very serious condition" and that "his
kidneys have failed." He is 71 years old.

Miyoshi Umeki, 78, a Japanese-born singer and actress who became the first Asian performer to win an Academy Award, for "Sayonara" (1957), distinguished herself onstage in "Flower Drum Song" and played a housekeeper on the TV series "The Courtship of Eddie's Father," died Aug. 28 at Licking Park Manor nursing home in Licking, Mo. She had cancer.

"Sayonara," based on a best-selling James A. Michener novel, was about forbidden romance between U.S. servicemen and Japanese women during the Korean War. Ms. Umeki's naive character marries an Air Force sergeant, played by Red Buttons, and the relationship leads to his persecution and their double suicide. Ms. Umeki and Buttons won Oscars for their supporting parts.




For much of the 20th century, movies or plays featuring Asian characters used actors without accounting for the distinctions among various ethnic groups. Ms. Umeki's work ethic overrode any concerns about playing the Chinese mail-order "picture bride" Mei Li during the Broadway run of "Flower Drum Song" (1958).

The Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II musical, in part about assimilation to American life, lasted two years onstage and brought Ms. Umeki a Tony Award nomination for best actress in a musical. "The warmth of her art works a kind of tranquil magic, and the whole theater relaxes," Time magazine wrote in a cover story about her and female co-star Pat Suzuki.

Ms. Umeki repeated the role of Mei Li in the 1961 film version of "Flower Drum Song" and appeared in a handful of mediocre east-meets-west romances, comedies and dramas -- "Cry for Happy" with Glenn Ford, "The Horizontal Lieutenant" with Jim Hutton and "A Girl Named Tamiko" with Laurence Harvey.

She gladly retired in 1972 after a three-year stint on ABC's "The Courtship of Eddie's Father." The sitcom, starring Bill Bixby, was based on a Glenn Ford film about an urbane widower being set up on dates by his son.

Ms. Umeki was born May 8, 1929, in Otaru, on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, where her father owned an iron factory.

She was the youngest of nine children and described her key early influences as traditional Kabuki theater and American pop music heard on the radio. She described her parents' loathing of American music, which required her to practice singing with a bucket on her head or under her bedcovers.

At the end of World War II, the teenage Ms. Umeki began singing with American G.I. bands at service clubs around Otaru for 90 cents a night. She studied Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee and Doris Day over the radio and herself became a presence on Japanese radio and TV.

Taking the more commercial name of Nancy Umeki, she recorded American pop standards for RCA Japan before arriving in the United States in 1955 and signing with Mercury Records. A recurring engagement on Arthur Godfrey's television show brought her to the attention of Joshua Logan, director of "Sayonara."

Her marriage to television executive Frederick W. Opie ended in divorce. Her second husband, documentary producer-director Randall F. Hood, whom she married in 1968, died in 1976.

Survivors include a son from the second marriage, Michael Hood of Licking; a sister; and two grandchildren.

Ms. Umeki completely withdrew from public life after "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" ended its run. She co-owned and operated a business renting editing equipment to film studios and university film programs before moving to Missouri from North Hollywood, Calif., about five years ago. The only time she performed was about four months ago, when she taught her granddaughter a Japanese song.

Luciano Pavarotti dead at 71By staff writers
September 06, 2007 02:48pm

LUCIANO Pavarotti, one of the greatest tenors of his generation, has died at his home in Modena, his manager says.

"Luciano Pavarotti died one hour ago," manager Terri Robson said in a telephone text message to media.

Earlier, family and friends had gathered at the home of the Italian opera star as he lay unconscious and battling kidney failure.

The 71-year-old tenor, who helped bring opera to the masses and performed to vast stadium audiences around the world underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer in July 2006.

Pavarotti shot to fame with a stand-in appearance at London's Covent Garden in 1963 and soon had critics gushing about his voluminous voice.

Perhaps his biggest gift to the music world was when he teamed up with Spanish stars Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras at the 1990 soccer World Cup and introduced operatic classics to an estimated 800 million television viewers round the globe.

Sales of opera albums shot up after the gala concert in Rome's Baths of Caracalla and since then Puccini's aria Nessun Dorma from his opera Turandot has been heavily associated with Pavarotti and soccer.

Like most Italian boys, Pavarotti used to dream of being a soccer star.

After the surgery in July last year in New York, he retreated to his Modena villa and had to cancel his first planned public reappearance a few months later.

Taken to hospital with a fever last month, Pavarotti was released on August 25 after undergoing more than two weeks of tests and treatment.

Earlier in his life Pavarotti's parents wanted him to have a steady job and for a while he worked as an insurance salesman and teacher.

But he started singing on the operatic circuit and his big break came thanks to another Italian opera great, Giuseppe di Stefano, who dropped out of a London performance of La Boheme in 1963.

Covent Garden had lined up "this large young man" as a possible stand-in and a star was born.

He went on to perform across Europe before crossing the Atlantic in February 1965 for a production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in Miami, Florida with Australia's Joan Sutherland as Lucia.

It was with Sutherland in February 1972 that Pavarotti truly came of age, taking Covent Garden and the New York Metropolitan Opera by storm with a sparkling production of another Donizetti favourite, La Fille du Regiment.

He famously hit nine high C notes in a row in Daughter of the Regiment at New York's Metropolitan Opera, which he referred to as "my home".

Thirty years later, Pavarotti was still one of the highest paid classical singers even though his public performances were fewer and further between.

Medical problems beset "Big Luciano" in the final years of his career, forcing him to cancel several dates of his marathon worldwide farewell tour.

- Reuters, AFP

SCTV's Godfather parody featured one
of my favourite John Candy characters.
The cheese toting Johnny Pavarotti.
Wish I could find a picture...

This looks like the mother of filmmakers David & Jerry Zucker ("Ghost", "Airplane"). She appeared in several of her sons' films


Zucker, Charlotte A. (Nee Lefstein) Died on September 5, 2007, age 86. Beloved wife of 66 years of Burton C. Zucker. Loving mother of Susan (William) Breslau, David (Danielle) Zucker and Jerry (Janet) Zucker. Proud grandmother of Ben and Jeremy (Heather) Breslau, Kate, Bob, Charles and Sarah Zucker. Fond sister-in-law of Robert and Clarice Zucker, Jim and Eve Joan Zucker and Rose Lefstein. Also survived my many loving nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by brothers, Leonard and Perry Lefstein. Charlotte was active in many local and national organizations including Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun, ORT, Hadassah and National Council of Jewish Women. She was a founding member of the Saturday Arts Club and was a beloved docent for many years at the Milwaukee Art Museum, having served on their board of trustees. An accomplished actress, she performed in numerous stage productions in New York, Madison and Milwaukee and enjoyed a film career which included 16 motion pictures. Funeral services 11:00 AM Friday, September 7, 2007, at Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun, 2020 W. Brown Deer Rd., River Hills. Interment following at Second Home Cemetery, 3705 S. 43rd St., Milwaukee. Memorial contributions to a charity of your choice would be appreciated. BLANE GOODMAN FUNERAL SERVICE Online guestbook and information www.blanegoodmanfunerals.com (262) 241-4444

Published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on 9/6/2007.

What's more tragic, their mother's death or the fact that when choosing two films to identify them you included Ghost?

WHy is Ghost so despised? I just noticed that recently. Guys in particular loathe that film. It's a well crafted comedy/thriller.

Let me count the ways:

1. Patrick
2. Swayze
3. Unchained Meoldy resurgence
4. Whoopi
5. The terrible special effects ending
6. Fully clothed Demi Moore
7. Whoopi

Swayze was used more as a physical specimen than for his acting.
'Unchained Melody' is a great Alex North tune.
Whoopi was at her best.
A shame about Demi.

And you can't deny that Tony Goldwyn was so effin EVIL! I'll kill her Sam! I swear I will!

That's more of an indictment of Swayze than a defense. And Whoopi at her best still makes me want to gouge out my eyes and ears.

Madeleine L’Engle died last night in Connecticut, at the age of 89. Best known for her 1963 Newbery Award winner A Wrinkle in Time and its sequels, L’Engle was the author of more than 60 books for adults and young readers, most of which were published by FSG. This spring, the Square Fish imprint of Holtzbrinck reissued L'Engle's Time Quintet in new editions.

I loved those books

CNN is reporting that a funeral director says Jane Wyman is dead. I guess he would know...

LOS ANGELES - Jane Wyman, Oscar winner as the deaf rape victim in "Johnny Belinda," star of the long-running TV series "Falcon Crest" and first wife of Ronald Reagan, has died at her desert home. She was 93.

Wyman died Monday morning at her Palm Springs home, said Richard Adney of Forest Lawn Memorial Park and Mortuary in Cathedral City. There were no other details immediately available.

Wyman's film career began with "Gold Diggers of 1937" and ended in 1969 co-starring with Bob Hope and Jackie Gleason in "How to Commit Marriage." From 1981 to 1990 she played Angela Channing, a Napa Valley winery owner who maintained her power with a steely will on "Falcon Crest."

Her marriage in 1940 to fellow Warner Bros. contract player Reagan was celebrated in the fan magazines as one of Hollywood's ideal unions. While he was in uniform during World War II, her career ascended, signaled by her 1946 Academy Award nomination for "The Yearling."

The couple divorced in 1948, the year she won the award for "Johnny Belinda." Reagan reportedly cracked to a friend: "Maybe I should name Johnny Belinda as co-respondent."

After Reagan became governor of California and then president of the United States, Wyman kept a decorous silence about her ex-husband, who had married actress Nancy Davis. In a 1968 newspaper interview, Wyman explained the reason:

"It's not because I'm bitter or because I don't agree with him politically. I've always been a registered Republican. But it's bad taste to talk about ex-husbands and ex-wives, that's all. Also, I don't know a damn thing about politics."

A few days after Reagan died on June 5, 2004, Wyman broke her silence, saying: "America has lost a great president and a great, kind and gentle man."

It was 1936 when Warner Bros. signed Wyman to a long-term contract. She long remembered the first line she spoke as a chorus girl to show producer Dick Powell: "I'm Bessie Fuffnik. I swim, ride, dive, imitate wild birds and play the trombone."

Warner Bros. was notorious for typecasting its contract players, and Wyman suffered that fate. She recalled in 1968: "For 10 years I was the wisecracking lady reporter who stormed the city desk snapping, `Stop the presses! I've got a story that will break this town wide open!'"

In 1937, Wyman married a wealthy manufacturer of children's clothes, Myron Futterman, in New Orleans. The marriage was reported as her second, but an earlier marriage was never confirmed. She divorced him in November 1938, declaring she wanted children and he didn't.

The actress became entranced by Reagan, a handsome former sportscaster who was a newcomer to the Warner lot. She wangled a date with him, and a romance ensued.

After returning from a personal appearance tour with columnist Louella Parsons, they were married on Jan. 26, 1940. The following year she gave birth to a daughter, Maureen. They later adopted a son, Michael. They also had a daughter who was born several months premature in June 1947 and died a day later.

In Reagan's autobiography "An American Life," the index shows only one mention of Wyman, and it runs for only two sentences. "That same year I made the Knute Rockne movie, I married Jane Wyman, another contract player at Warners," Reagan wrote. "Our marriage produced two wonderful children, Maureen and Michael, but it didn't work out, and in 1948 we were divorced." The final divorce decree was issued in 1949.

Their daughter Maureen died in August 2001 after a battle with cancer. At the funeral, Wyman, balancing on a cane, put a cross on the casket. Reagan, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was not well enough to attend.

Early in their marriage, Reagan's career grew with "Knute Rockne — All American" and "King's Row" while Wyman languished as "Joan Blondell of the B's." That changed after Reagan joined the army.

Wyman escaped B pictures by persuading Jack Warner to loan her to Paramount for "The Lost Weekend." The film won the Academy Award for 1945 and led to another loanout — to MGM for "The Yearling." De-glamourized as a backwoods wife and mother, the actress received her first Academy Award nomination.

After 40 films at Warner Bros., Wyman achieved her first acting challenge with "Johnny Belinda." When Jack Warner saw a rough cut of the film, he ranted to the director, Jean Negulesco: "We invented talking pictures, and you make a picture about a deaf and dumb girl!"

Hughie Thomasson, Guitarist with the Outlaws & Lynard Skynard, has died

Anita Roddick is no longer alive.

http://music.monstersandcritics.com/featur...zz_pioneer_dies

Josef Zawinul has died.

NP:

I kinda figured Tony would miss the Zawinul obit, since most jazz musicians fall under the media radar.

That and I have to sleep.

Even the Reaper needs a nap now and again.

Killing is tiring way of life.

I just went on a Weather Report kick too (hadn't listened to them in years)...R.I.P. J.Z.

---------


Jazz legend Joe Zawinul dies at 75

By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 16 minutes ago

Joe Zawinul, who soared to fame as one of the creators of jazz fusion and performed and recorded with Miles Davis, died early Tuesday, a hospital official said. He was 75.

Zawinul had been hospitalized since last month. A spokeswoman for Vienna's Wilhelmina Clinic confirmed his death without giving details. His manager, Risa Zincke, said Zawinul suffered from a rare form of skin cancer, according to the Austria Press Agency.

Zawinul won widespread acclaim for his keyboard work on chart-topping Davis albums such as "In A Silent Way" and "Bitches Brew," and was a leading force behind the so-called "Electric Jazz" movement.

In 1970, Zawinul founded the band Weather Report and produced a series of albums including "Heavy Weather," "Black Market" and "I Sing the Body Electric." After that band's breakup, he founded the Zawinul Syndicate in 1987.

Zawinul, who was born in the Austrian capital, Vienna, and emigrated to the United States in 1959, is credited with bringing the electric piano and synthesizer into the jazz mainstream.

This past spring, he toured Europe to mark the 20th anniversary of the Zawinul Syndicate. He sought medical attention when the tour ended, the Viennese Hospital Association said in a statement last month.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer said Zawinul's death meant the loss of a "music ambassador" who was known and cherished around the world. "As a person and through his music, Joe Zawinul will remain unforgettable for us all," Fischer said in a statement.

Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer praised Zawinul's "unpretentious way of dealing with listeners" and said he wasn't "blinded by superficialities."

"Wherever he performed, he impressed with his playing," Gusenbauer said in a statement.

Zawinul's son, Erich, said his father would not be forgotten. "He lives on," Erich Zawinul was quoted as saying by APA.

Zawinul played with Maynard Ferguson and Dinah Washington before joining alto saxophonist great Cannonball Adderley in 1961 for nine years, according to a biography on his Web site. With Adderley, Zawinul wrote several important songs, among them the slow and funky hit "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy."

Zawinul then moved on to a brief collaboration with Miles Davis, at the time Davis was moving into the electric arena. It was Zawinul's tune "In a Silent Way" that served as the title track of Davis' first electric foray.

Funeral plans were not immediately released, but Vienna Mayor Michael Haeupl told reporters he would be given an honorary grave in the capital.

[delete]

Colin McRae has died

Robert Jordan dies at age 58

Charleston novelist James Oliver Rigney Jr., 58, known to millions of readers by the pen name Robert Jordan, the best-selling author of "The Wheel of Time" fantasy series, died Sunday after a fight with the rare blood disease amyloidosis, a progressive disorder first diagnosed in December 2005 at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Rigney, who also wrote novels under the nom de plume Reagan O'Neal, succumbed to complications from primary amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy.

In an open letter to the science fiction magazine Locus in April of 2006, Rigney said he had been diagnosed with a disorder that affects only eight people out of one million each year.

The most popular fantasy author since J.R.R. Tolkien, Rigney was born in 1948 in Charleston. A graduate of The Citadel who earned a degree in physics, he served two tours of duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Army, winning a Distinguished Flying Cross, the Bronze Star and two Vietnamese Crosses of Gallantry. A lifelong history buff and voracious reader, he also wrote dance and theater criticism. He had been writing full time since 1977.

His "Wheel of Time" series was among the best-selling in the history of fantasy publishing, with thousands of Web sites devoted in whole or in part to his writing. He also wrote many of the popular "Conan the Barbarian" books, picking up from series creator Robert E. Howard.

A note published on his blog, www.dragonmount.com, announcing his death continued to fill up with comments from fans from across the globe Sunday night as word spread.

At the time of his death, Rigney was one of the leading lights of the Lowcountry literary community. Along with outdoor activities, he liked playing poker and chess and collecting hats and pipes.

He is survived by his wife, Harriet McDougal Rigney.

Funeral arrangements will be announced later this week.

Actress and comedian Brett Somers, who amused game show fans with her quips on the "Match Game" in the 1970s, has died, her son said. She was 83.

Somers died Saturday at her home in Westport of stomach and colon cancer, Adam Klugman said Monday.

Hosted by Gene Rayburn, "Match Game" was the top game show during much of the 1970s. Contestants would try to match answers to nonsense questions with a panel of celebrities; much of the humor came from the racy quips and putdowns.

Shows from the 1973-79 run, featuring regulars like Somers, Richard Dawson and Charles Nelson Reilly, are still seen on cable TV's GSN (formerly Game Show Network).

Somers married actor Jack Klugman, the future star of the television shows "Quincy" and "The Odd Couple," in 1953. The two separated in 1974, but never divorced.

They made many television appearances as a couple. Somers appeared on several episodes of "The Odd Couple," playing the ex-wife of Klugman's character.

In the summer of 2003, she appeared in a one-woman cabaret show, "An Evening with Brett Somers," which she wrote and co-produced. She continued to perform after being diagnosed with cancer.

She was born Audrey Johnston in New Brunswick, Canada, and grew up in Portland, Maine. She ran away from home at age 17 and headed for New York City, where she settled in Greenwich Village. She changed her first name to Brett after the lead female character in the Ernest Hemingway novel "The Sun Also Rises." Somers was her mother's maiden name.

Her son said she was caustic, irreverent and a self-declared bohemian.

"She maintained her independence till the end, and her irreverence," Adam Klugman said. "She died very much at peace."

In addition to Adam Klugman, Somers is survived by another son, David, and a daughter, Leslie

CNR AND BRETT SOMERS IN ONE YEAR DEAR GOD WHY

Alex Romero, a dancer and choreographer who directed Elvis Presley's
dancing for the movie "Jailhouse Rock" and also worked with Presley on
three other films, has died. He was 94.


Romero died Sept. 8 of natural causes at the Motion Picture and
Television Fund home, according to Mark Knowles, a dance writer and
friend. He had been a resident of the home for several years.


A gracefully athletic dancer, Romero got his start in movies in the
early 1940s. He was a featured dancer in "On the Town," a 1949 film
that starred Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra. He also performed in the
1951 film "An American in Paris," which also starred Kelly.


He worked as an assistant choreographer before he went out on his own.
His earliest solo credits include "The Affairs of Dobie Gillis,"
starring Bobby Van and Debbie Reynolds in 1953.


Romero was named staff choreographer for MGM in the late 1940s and
held the position for almost 20 years.


"Alex was the last link to the Golden Age of movie musicals," said
Larry Billman, author of the encyclopedia "Film Choreographers and
Dance Directors" (1997). "Fortunately, before Alex left he moved movie
choreography into the next generation."


Romero was known for his humor and imaginative use of props in dances
he choreographed. In "The Fastest Gun Alive," a 1956 western, he
choreographed Russ Tamblyn, who danced with a shovel as a prop. Romero
also worked with Tamblyn on "Tom Thumb" in 1958.


His other film credits include "The Wonderful World of the Brothers
Grimm," a 1962 movie with a number of dance scenes, and "Love at First
Bite," a 1979 comedy starring George Hamilton and Susan Saint James.


For Presley, Romero choreographed "Double Trouble" and "Clambake" in
1967 as well as "Speedway" the next year.


Their most memorable collaboration remained "Jailhouse Rock" in 1957.


"Jailhouse became a signature piece for Elvis, and it helped make rock
'n' roll an acceptable dance form for films," Knowles said.


The production number for the movie's title song was Presley's first
choreographed routine, according to "Down at the End of Lonely Street:
The Life and Death of Elvis Presley," by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H.
Broeske (1997).


"I guess he thought that I was going to give him some slick dancing
steps," Romero said in the book. "I chose steps that were foreign to
him, but that were also like him, so he could pick them up."


Born Alexander Bernard Quiroga on Aug. 20, 1913, in San Antonio, he
started dancing professionally at 15 in a touring dance act started by
three of his brothers. The act broke up in the late 1930s. Romero went
to work in Hollywood soon after that.


He married Frances Driscoll in 1936. She died in 1997. Romero is
survived by his daughters Melinda Akard of Oviedo, Fla., and Judy
George of Woodland Hills; four grandchildren and three great-
grandchildren.

She was so old.......

(HOW OLD WAS SHE?)

Well, she was so old that she BLANKED when she died.

Alice Ghostley, a Tony Award-winning actress who became known to television viewers for her roles as dizzy sidekicks on “Bewitched” and “Designing Women,” died yesterday at her home in Studio City, Calif. Her age was usually given as 81.

The cause was cancer, said a longtime friend, the actress Kaye Ballard, who said that she was actually about two years older.

Ms. Ghostley made more than 90 television appearances in a career that spanned six decades. She was a regular on the situation comedy “Bewitched” from 1966 through 1972, playing Esmeralda, a shy, bumbling witch whose spells never worked, who caused unintentional havoc whenever she sneezed and who turned invisible when she became nervous.

From 1986 through 1993, she played a more-than-usually wacky neighbor, Bernice Clifton, on the hit show “Designing Women.” In one episode, plastic surgery gone awry gives her a pig’s nose, which she wears with aplomb, then with mounting embarrassment until it is repaired. She also appeared in “Evening Shade,” “Love, American Style” and “Mayberry R.F.D.”.

While essentially a comic actress, she won a Tony for best supporting actress in 1965 for her performance in a drama, “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window,” by Lorraine Hansberry, author of “A Raisin in the Sun.” Ms. Ghostley played the conventional sister of the show’s star, Rita Moreno.

Ms. Ghostley also received a Tony nomination in 1963 for her performance in “The Beauty Part,” a fantasy by S. J. Perelman.

Alice Margaret Ghostley was born in Eve, Mo. She first attracted notice in “New Faces of 1952,” one in a series of Broadway revues staged by the producer Leonard Sillman; that edition helped start the careers of Paul Lynde, Eartha Kitt and Carol Lawrence. Ms. Ghostley’s big moment was her rendering of the song “The Boston Beguine,” a sendup of proper Bostonians.

She is survived by her sister, Gladys. Her husband, the actor Felice Orlandi, died in 2003.

Ms. Ghostley appeared in 30 films, including “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Graduate.” While she never won an Oscar, she did accept one, standing in for her friend and fellow “New Faces” alumna Maggie Smith in 1970, who was named best actress for her starring role in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”

What a shame. A great driver.

PARIS (AP) — Marcel Marceau, who revived the art of mime and brought poetry to silence, has died, his former assistant said Sunday. He was 84.

Marceau died Saturday in Paris, French media reported. Former assistant Emmanuel Vacca announced the death on France-Info radio, but gave no details about the cause.

Wearing white face paint, soft shoes and a battered hat topped with a red flower, Marceau played the entire range of human emotions onstage for more than 50 years, never uttering a word. Offstage, however, he was famously chatty. "Never get a mime talking. He won't stop," he once said.

A French Jew, Marceau survived the Holocaust — and also worked with the French Resistance to protect Jewish children.

His biggest inspiration was Charlie Chaplin. Marceau, in turn, inspired countless young performers — Michael Jackson borrowed his famous "moonwalk" from a Marceau sketch, "Walking Against the Wind."

Marceau performed tirelessly around the world until late in life, never losing his agility, never going out of style. In one of his most poignant and philosophical acts, "Youth, Maturity, Old Age, Death," he wordlessly showed the passing of an entire life in just minutes.

"Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us without words?" he once said.

Marceau was born Marcel Mangel on March 22, 1923, in Strasbourg, France. His father Charles, a butcher who sang baritone, introduced his son to the world of music and theater at an early age. The boy adored the silent film stars of the era: Chaplin, Buster Keaton and the Marx brothers.

When the Germans marched into eastern France, he and his family were given just hours to pack their bags. He fled to southwest France and changed his last name to Marceau to hide his Jewish origins.

With his brother Alain, Marceau became active in the French Resistance. Marceau altered children's identity cards, changing their birth dates to trick the Germans into thinking they were too young to be deported. Because he spoke English, he was recruited to be a liaison officer with Gen. George S. Patton's army.

In 1944, Marceau's father was sent to Auschwitz, where he died.

Later, he reflected on his father's death: "Yes, I cried for him."

But he also thought of all the others killed: "Among those kids was maybe an Einstein, a Mozart, somebody who (would have) found a cancer drug," he told reporters in 2000. "That is why we have a great responsibility. Let us love one another."

When Paris was liberated, Marcel's life as a performer began. He enrolled in Charles Dullin's School of Dramatic Art, studying with the renowned mime Etienne Decroux.

On a tiny stage at the Theatre de Poche, a smoke-filled Left Bank cabaret, he sought to perfect the style of mime that would become his trademark.

Bip — Marceau's on-stage persona — was born.


Marceau once said that Bip was his creator's alter ego, a sad-faced double whose eyes lit up with child-like wonder as he discovered the world. Bip was a direct descendant of the 19th century harlequin, but his clownish gestures, Marceau said, were inspired by Chaplin and Keaton.

Marceau likened his character to a modern-day Don Quixote, "alone in a fragile world filled with injustice and beauty."

Dressed in a white sailor suit, a top hat — a red rose perched on top — Bip chased butterflies and flirted at cocktail parties. He went to war and ran a matrimonial service.

In one famous sketch, "Public Garden," Marceau played all the characters in a park, from little boys playing ball to old women with knitting needles.

In 1949 Marceau's newly formed mime troupe was the only one of its kind in Europe. But it was only after a hugely successful tour across the United States in the mid-1950s that Marceau received the acclaim that would make him an international star.

Single-handedly, Marceau revived the art of mime.

"I have a feeling that I did for mime what (Andres) Segovia did for the guitar, what (Pablo) Casals did for the cello," he once told The Associated Press in an interview.

In the past decades, he has taken Bip to from Mexico to China to Australia. He's also made film appearances. The most famous was Mel Brooks' "Silent Movie": He had the only speaking line, "Non!"


As he aged, Marceau kept on performing at the same level, never losing the agility that made him famous. On top of his Legion of Honor and his countless honorary degrees, he was invited to be a United Nations goodwill ambassador for a 2002 conference on aging.

"If you stop at all when you are 70 or 80, you cannot go on," he told The AP in an interview in 2003. "You have to keep working."

Funeral arrangements were not immediately known.

I didn't hear he died.
He must have went quietly.

And the prize for 1st Joke Out Of The Gate goes to.....Zolacolby!!



Marceau's family will save a lot on the funeral expenses...instead of a coffin, he will be laid to rest in an imaginary box.

Isn't it ironic - after all this time, Marcel Marceau really *is* trapped in a box...

I can't tell you how many different times this line has popped up on different message boards and conversations in the last few days.

Blackhawks owner Wirtz dead at 77

By Neil Milbert | Tribune staff reporter
4:03 AM CDT, September 26, 2007

A throwback to a bygone era in American sports when family ownership of professional franchises was the norm, Bill Wirtz died early Wednesday at age 77 at Evanston Hospital following a short illness.
Many considered Mr. Wirtz to be a dinosaur in today's environment of corporate ownership.
A more apt metaphor would be to describe him as a mammoth, a giant of the modern ice age that saw him play an integral role in the expansion of the National Hockey League from six to 30 teams.
Although Mr. Wirtz was best known for his long tenure as president of his family-owned Chicago Blackhawks, his sports ventures went far beyond the NHL.

Like a mammoth, Mr. Wirtz had a thick skin, as evidenced by his refusal to flinch under a barrage of criticism that lasted for several decades because he would not allow Blackhawks' home games to be televised and, in recent years, his steadfast refusal to get into multi-million dollar bidding wars to acquire the services of the game's best players.
And, like the mammoth's evolutionary offspring, the elephant, he was renowned for his memory.
Jerry Reinsdorf, the principal owner of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox and a partner with Wirtz in building, owning and operating the United Center, once said: "He has the most incredible memory of anybody I know. There are documents that he has read and digested, and all I have to show for my efforts is a headache."
Among Chicago sports franchise owners, Wirtz was in a class by himself. His outside business endeavors extended to real estate, liquor distributorships, catering, parking lots, banking, hotels and the travel industry.
In amassing a fortune estimated to be in excess of $550 million, Wirtz was legendary for driving a hard bargain. He was a baron of the bottom line, earning him the nickname "Dollar Bill."
But Mr. Wirtz also contributed millions of dollars to charity and was fiercely loyal to many of his long time employees and former players.

Former THE OFFENDERS/MDC Bassist MIKEY DONALDSON Dead At 46

Lois Maxwell, the Canadian-born actress who was to many fans the definitive Miss Moneypenny in James Bond films, has died in Western Australia at 80.

The BBC reported that Maxwell, the demur foil to Bond's suave rake in 14 films, had died in Fremantle Hospital. She had been suffering from cancer.

Born in Kitchener, Ontario, in February 1927, she appeared in many other films and television series, and wrote a popular newspaper column for years.

She became close friends with Roger Moore, who followed Sean Connery as Bond in 1973 and played him in seven films.

"She was a very fine actress and had a great sense of humour," Moore told the BBC. "It was a great disappointment to her that she had not been promoted to play M. She would have been a wonderful M."