2017: Obits and Tributes

First entry of 2017, a great old sportsman, Milt Schmidt, former captain of my favourite hockey team, the Boston Bruins:

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/milt-schmidt-dead-at-98-1.3921617

Clare Hollingsworth, war correspondent--she was a true witness to history:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/10/clare-hollingworth-dies-aged-105-tele...

Lord Snowdon:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/lord-snowdon-1.3934364

...and EXORCIST author William Peter Blatty:

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38613928

Zygmunt Bauman, perhaps the world's greatest sociologist.

https://www.socialeurope.eu/2017/01/zygmunt-bauman-beacon-hope-darkness/
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/01/adieu-zygmunt-bauman-1701121311...

Zhou Youguang, the creator of Pinyin:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/14/world/asia/zhou-youguang-who-made-writing-chi...

Gene Cernan, commander of the last mission to the moon:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38641121

Great character actor Miguel Ferrer. Just 61, cancer.

Mary Tyler Moore
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/arts/television/mary-tyler-moore-dead.html?_r...

Oh thank you anna_in_pdx for linking to that page, what with that wonderful Frigidaire ad which on its own it would make it worthwhile. (Seems to me that MTM & WKRP are the most fetching of all US sitcoms, likely because in each the writers made characters who were all of equal interest.)

Just watched Mary in the "Chuckles the Clown" episode. Still made me howl.

Thanks, gal.

Farewell Mike Connors, TV's "Mannix":

http://www.avclub.com/article/rip-mike-connors-tvs-mannix-249200

Discovered recently that Om Puri died earlier this month:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-38527232

50th anniversary of the Apollo I fire that cost the lives of three astronauts:

http://www.npr.org/2017/01/26/511660847/on-50th-anniversary-nasa-creates-tribute...

The GREAT John Hurt:

http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/01/john-hurt-obituary

Geoff Nichols, of Black Sabbath:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/geoff-nicholls-black-sabbath-keyboardist-...

A bad week for deaths - writers Harry Matthews, Bucji Emecheta, and Emma Tennant; singer Maggie Roche (if you haven't heard The Roches they are well worth searching out), and French cinema legend, Emmanuelle Riva.

Harry Matthews: the epitome of a "writer's writer".

Aesthetically fearless, from what I've read.

Energy efficiency pioneer Art Rosenfeld (this is one of the most fascinating obits I've ever read).
http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/01/27/art-rosenfeld-californias-godfather-energy-...

>19 anna_in_pdx:, wow, that California-vs-USA energy chart is pretty amazing.

David Shepard, film preservationist:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/movies/david-shepard-film-preservationist-die...

Al Jarreau:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38951462

>19 anna_in_pdx: Read the article - Great, I had never heard of the guy. I have read stuff from the Rocky Mountains Institute since near its inception, http://www.rmi.org/, but Amory Lovins and his group are all following the path blazed by Mr. Rosenfield evidently.

>20 Cecrow: Yep, that chart is surprising, a wonder it has not been used more often.

Canadian radio personality and storyteller, Stuart McLean:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/stuart-mclean-dead-obit-1.3984826

>24 CliffBurns:, I always found his stories lie flat on the page, but they had unbelievable life over the radio. Some people are authors, some people are storytellers.

It wasn't my kind of thing, honestly, I found it McLean's stories too sentimental, the "humour" bland and forced.

But he was very popular in our country, seemed to be well-liked, so I'll leave that be...

Canadian union leader, Bob White:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bob-white-dead-1.3991048

The National Film Board documentary mentioned in the obit, "Final Offer", gives a behind the scenes look at negotiations between unions and management in the 1980s. The atmosphere poisonous, both sides playing a zero sum game. The movie is likely available on YouTube. I recall it with great fondness.

Liberal news commentator Alan Colmes, age 66.

Actor Bill Paxton:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/26/arts/bill-paxton-dead.html?hp&action=clic...

Terrific actor--if you haven't seen "One False Move" or "A Simple Plan", you're missing out on two fine thrillers starring Monsieur Paxton.

He was a gem.

I've come across mention of him a couple of times & was all of them disappointed to find that no, Bill Paxton wasn't that guy who was in 'My Favorite Martian'. Forename + disyllabic surname with an 'x' was I suppose what led me to think he was.

'Complications of surgery' as cause of death always makes me mad curious about the specifics.

Oh man, Howard Hodgkin:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/arts/design/howard-hodgkin-dead-british-paint...

Robert james Waller:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/robert-james-waller-dead-1.4019384

...by the way, Waller's BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY was written in a mere eleven days.

I have no further comment.

Derek Walcott:

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-39307148

So long, Chuck:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39318602

Jimmy Breslin, newspaperman.

Artist Bernie Wrightson

So long to another Chuck, Chuck Barris of 'The Gong Show' fame.
www.yahoo.com/tv/gong-show-creator-chuck-barris-dies-87-062200924.html

Drummer Sib Hashian, of the band Boston. http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2017/03/23/boston-rocker-sib-hashian-dies-w...

Yevgeny Yevtushenko, poet:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39467270

James Rosenquist
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/01/arts/james-rosenquist-dead-pop-art.html?hp&am...

David Storey, novelist and playwright, rugby player. Booker prize winner for Saville. This Sporting Life made into a Lindsay Anderson film. Home won the Tony for best play.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/david-storey-never-fashionable-belongs-...

The Great Don Rickles, 90, kidney failure.

Paul O'Neill, founder of Trans-Siberian Orchestra

>44 jldarden: I remember being a little girl sitting between mom and dad, listening them laugh hysterically at this cubby man who I thought was rather rude. A few years later I started getting him, and since then he's made me laugh a thousand times. Most of todays comics owe much to Rickels - if for no other reason that he opened up comedy as a way to speak truth to power

Speaking of which - I wonder what his last words about Trump would have been. Regardless thanks for the laughter, RIP

>45 jldarden:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsxzBCr2zNM

Thanks for that link!

J. Geils
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/11/entertainment/j-geils-dead/

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance author Robert Pirsig at 88.

Michele Scarponi--trust me, he was a very well-known cyclist & winner of the 2011 Giro. Alas.

http://www.velonews.com/2017/04/news/italys-scarponi-killed-training-crash_43611...

The Jonathan Demme close up:
https://vimeo.com/126757480

Actor Powers Boothe:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/obit-powers-boothe-1.4115180

Chris Cornell, great singer:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/chris-cornell-dead-1.4120964

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-entertainment-news-updates-may-col-br...

Col. Bruce Hampton - I saw him play several times at really small {10 - 15 ft away} venues. Not knowing his musical background {played with Frank Zappa & others} until later, I was impressed with his creativity and obvious effort to not be formulaic. He actually died while preforming onstage in Atlanta at a huge concert being given in his honor on his 70th birthday. There are speculations if he chose to do that and most thought it part of a stage act at first.

Hampton sounds like a fascinating man. What a way to go...

Roger Ailes.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/18/528925119/roger-ailes-former-f...

>57 anna_in_pdx: Oh! So it wasn't auto-erotic strangulation while watching fake nudes of Megyn Kelly. Must have been a fake nudes story.

>58 justifiedsinner: *groan*

Matt Taibbi's critical take on Ailes and his minions:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/taibbi-roger-ailes-was-one-of-the-...

>60 CliffBurns: I liked that obit. Matt Taibbi at his best.
>58 justifiedsinner: Ugh yeah what a sleaze, right? Glad he's gone.

Photojournalist Stanley Greene:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/business/media/stanley-greene-dead-war-photog...

Roger Moore was the second James Bond but he's the first to pass:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/actor-roger-moore-bond-obituary-1.4127297

I liked "Live and Let Die", and highlights from some of his others.

>63 Cecrow: I have been humming "Live and Let Die" all morning since hearing this news on the radio followed by the song (of course)

I liked his old series "The Saint" but never liked him as Bond. Still a sad loss.

>63 Cecrow: Actually, Roger Moore was the third Bond, Sean Connery having been succeeded in the role by George Lazenby for 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'. But AFAIK, no-one had ever re-booted a franchise before and no-one really knew how to go about it. Lazenby was contracted to do 'OHMSS' and 'Diamonds are Forever', but after the first film, his agent went totally off piste and went public, saying that his man wouldn't be doing the next Bond film, probably in the belief that he could leverage a better deal out of the film-makers. So when they said, "OK", he was left with egg on his face and Lazenby was left with a career shot down in flames by someone who was supposed to be looking after his best interests..

Time has suggested that Lazenby was better at the role than many thought (all the best one-liners in the film were Lazenby's own ad-libs); and technically, 'OHMSS' remains one of the most spectacular Bond films. Ultimately, perhaps the biggest mistake that was made in the whole enterprise was trying to cast someone who looked like Connery but wasn't Connery.

Right, forgot Lazenby. OHMSS is a good one.

Jesus, Denis Johnson is gone:

http://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/denis-johnson-in-the-new-yorker

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter's national security adviser, 89.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/26/us/zbigniew-brzezinski-dead-national-security...

Oh, no. Gregg Allman.

>70 jldarden: Well there goes my generation. I saw them several times in concert - before and after Duane's passing. I really liked the instrumental improvisation in their live concerts. The group's views on the war in Vietnam, Gregg shot himself in the foot to avoid the draft I heard, were shared by myself and most of my friends.

Tobias Wolff on Denis Johnson:

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/denis-johnsons-generosity

Actor Peter Sallis:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/obit-sallis-peter-wallace-1.4146425

Adam West:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40235142

A great human rights campaigner and brave man, Liu Xiaobo:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-40597514

Director George Romero, from lung cancer:
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-me-george-romero-20170716-story.h...

...and Martin Landau too:

http://amp.tmz.com/2017/07/16/martin-landau-dead

Clancy Sigal, British novelist and memoirist:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/books/clancy-sigal-dead-author-of-going-away....

Sam Shepard, actor, director, playwright:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/playwright-director-and-actor-sam-shepard-dies-at-7...

Oh my

My wife had a crush on him and western actor Sam Elliot. My only two rivals.

Everybody has a crush on Sam Elliott!

And, oddly, enough, our youngest son is named "Sam".

I always thought that was in honor of Beckett.

How naive I am...

Actress Jeanne Moreau

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/31/movies/jeanne-moreau-dead.html

Didn't know this: "and did a cameo as an elderly descendant of Cinderella in “Ever After” (1998)" One of my favorite movies.

Glen Campbell:

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40870474

>84 Taphophile13:, I remember best her distinctive voice as narrator for the movie version of Marguerite Duras' The Lover, 1992.

Jerry Lewis:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40994864

Brian Aldiss, sci-fi author, at 92

He had a loooong run.

Good for him.

Dick Gregory:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/20/dick-gregory-obituary

From the Back of the Bus

>88 CliffBurns: He certainly did bring MD to the forefront, and perhaps lead other 'rare' disease sufferers to chart their own research, but as an actor and comedian he fell way short for me. Couldn't stand his voice and his sillyness. But Im probably in the minority. Regardless, RIP.

He wasn't my kinda comedian either.

My tastes run to Tati, the Marx Brothers and Keaton.

Film director Tobe Hooper:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41065552

Actor Richard Anderson:

https://twitter.com/i/moments/903388624443420672

Oh man, Walter Becker from Steely Dan:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/03/arts/music/walter-becker-dead-steely-dan.html...

Poet John Ashbery:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/09/03/poet_john_ashbery_dies_at_90.html

SF author Jerry Pournelle: https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/9/16279582/jerry-pournelle-science-fiction-autho...

Chris Claremont told me this story once how Pournelle would walk around the streets of LA shooting at the genitalia of various male passers-by. As he was about to shoot at the junk of a large African American the man said 'You shoot it you eat it!". Pournell subsequently gave up this hobby.

#98--Never liked or respected either his writing or his politics.

"Military science fiction" authors should be seen in the same light as the very worst hacks and literary dregs.

No-talent scum.

>98 justifiedsinner:, >99 CliffBurns: He had his uses, though. When the management of the main convention hotel, the Brighton Metropole, turned nasty on the con organisers at the 1984 World SF Convention, it was Jerry Pournelle, in his role as then SF Writers of America chairman, that the con chair got out of bed to go and argue with the hotel manager over unfulfilled parts of the contract.

>99 CliffBurns: >100 RobertDay: Used to read his column in Byte which consisted of him describing the vast amount of free tech gear he was given to review. Arrogant, self-aggrandizing, with mediocre talent. Surprised he wasn't given a post in this administration.

Sir Peter Hall:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2017/09/12/sir-peter-hall-obituary/

J. P. Donleavy

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/13/books/jp-donleavy-acclaimed-author-of-the-gin...

Wow, I thought he was gone YEARS ago.

THE GINGER MAN has been on my TBR pile for ages.

Grant Hart, from one of the great, under-appreciated bands, Husker Du:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41274059

> 104 So did I.--I'm guessing you are of a certain age; if so, don't put it at top of that pile, as I remember it being much like a campus cult novel & something that might strike you at best as being what reviewers call 'rollicking' rather than a book you and your mates down the pub would discuss at great length because the protagonist is outrageous & cool & iconoclastic. (And I'm rather curious to know did Donleavy himself give his name the US or the Irish pronunciation.)

#106--The edition of THE GINGER MAN I have is a hideous green paperback from Laurel/Dell, published back in 1980.

Not the most attractive book I own...

>107 CliffBurns: http://www.jpdonleavy-compendium.org/ginger_man_70s.html. I linked to pg of 70s editions because the footnote on it is er bemusing. Your hideous green is nothing like so nauseous as the German cover from 1980s. Hebrew edition wins best of, surely.

>104 CliffBurns: Same here.

>107 CliffBurns: Mine's a 1965 Penguin paperback. Enjoyed it at the time but can't remember much about it. He always struck me as being in the Brendan Behan mould.

Harry Dean Stanton:

http://www.tmz.com/2017/09/15/harry-dean-stanton-dead/

Farewell Jake LaMotta:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41339153

Mr. Playboy, Hugh Hefner:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41423845

Who says hedonism shortens your life span?

>113 CliffBurns: a view of his legacy:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2017/09/28/how_hugh_hefner_s_complicated_le...

>114 Taphophile13: Ta--good article.

Tom Petty
http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/tom-petty-dead-1.4317148

One of the Travelling Wilburys alongside Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and George Harrison. With his band the Heartbreakers he was the Super Bowl 2008 halftime show. He successfully sued Sam Smith not long ago for mimicking his chorus from "I Won't Back Down".

Tom Petty - just great music....Travelling Wilburys excellent stuff without big egos getting in the way of playing wonderfully crafted songs.

>116 Cecrow: Into the Great Wide Open

Actor Robert Guillaume, who played Benson on Soap and voiced Rafiki in The Lion King, plus many other roles.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/10/24/robert_guillaume_star_of_the_lion...

>119 Taphophile13:, that's quite the coincidence. I've overheard The Lion King many times recently (kids went on a binge) and the Rafiki voice always stops me, just expertly done; always makes me wonder how much of it was ad-libbed. And of course I remember Benson; wow, never put those voices together before, perfect match of course.

>120 Cecrow: I too hadn't put those voices together. Made me appreciate him even more.

>121 Taphophile13: Heh I didn't realize that either - need to put on the soundtrack and listen more closely.

Fats Domino
http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/obit-fats-domino-1.4370915

With him and Chuck gone now, who's left among the big rock names of that generation? Little Richard springs to mind, who else?

An odd mix over the weekend: Brian Johnson of AC/DC. Country legend Mel Tillis. Charles Manson. Singer and actress Della Reese.

Brian Johnson is alive, but Malcolm Young of the same band died. You're right, a lot of talent in a short amount of time. And one sociopath no one will miss.

A chance here to recommend The Family by Ed Sanders (of the Fugs, of which I've no idea whether all the members are alive). Now & again I give myself a swift hard kick for having given away my copy of the uncensored version.

Hadn't dreamed that Della Reese was still alive. Until very recently, that is. >123 Cecrow: Jerry Lee Lewis? Think 'Great Balls of Fire' e.g. would have been considered rocknroll rather than rockabilly.

>125 mstrust: Ooops! Misread that. My apologies.

>127 jldarden: No problem!

David Cassidy is gone:
http://variety.com/2017/music/people-news/david-cassidy-dead-dies-partridge-fami...

Oh my first crush - had lots of his photos hanging up on my teenage bedroom. Whats funny is that I rarely watched the tv show; just hearing his music and seeing his face was enough. Way too young - RIP

Ultra-literary author William Gass is gone:

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/missouri/articles/2017-12-07/prize-winni...

Mystery writer Sue Grafton of the Kinsey Millhone alphabet series.

>131 jldarden: Only made it to Y, unfortunately.

>131 jldarden:, wow, I hadn't heard that. And she did 25/26 letters? That's like Robert Jordan all over again.