The RIP Famous Person Thread

[peterpan]

hear hear, mr lick well done.

[Merrimack]

Author Farley Mowat, Who Wrote 'Never Cry Wolf,' Dies At 92
May 07, 2014






Farley Mowat, the Canadian author of the nature classic Never Cry Wolf, has died at age 92, Canadian media report.
quotes Mowat's brother, John, as saying the acclaimed writer and environmentalist died Tuesday, just a few days shy of his 93rd birthday.

"In a 50-plus-year career as a freelance writer, he wrote more than 40 books including several memoirs, and won many prizes and honours including the Governor General's Literary Award, the Order of Canada and several honorary degrees. Even as recently as July, 2009, Nicholas D. Kristof, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, listed Mr. Mowat's The Dog who Wouldn't Be (first published in 1957) as one of the best children's books of all time."

Besides being a best-selling author and "one of the elder statesmen of Canadian literature," the Globe and Mail describes Mowat as "a trickster, a ferocious imp with a silver pen, an ardent environmentalist who opened up the idea of the North to curious southerners, a public clown who hid his shyness behind flamboyant rum-swigging and kilt-flipping, and a passionate polemicist who blurred the lines between fiction and facts to dramatize his cause. "
The Star says:

"Mowat has never been one to back away from controversy. A 2012 Toronto Star of the author of dozens of books — starting with People of the Deer, published in 1952, to his memoirs Otherwise, published in 2008, and Eastern Passagein 2010 — described him as still rising at 6:30 to walk his dog, and begin his writing after breakfast with his wife of 55 years, Claire."

In his advanced years, Mowat continued to actively campaign to protect the Canadian wilderness he so loved. voicing his opposition to extending wifi service to the country's national parks.
"My thoughts can be expressed quite simply. I think it is a disastrous, quite stupid, idiotic concept, and should be eliminated immediately," he told the Canadian Broadcast Corp.
"I have very strong feelings that national parks, provincial parks, any kind of parks, that are theoretically set up to provide for the protection of nature, in some form or another, should be respected absolutely and ultimately and human beings should be kept out of them as much as possible," he said.
Update at 6:20 p.m. ET:
NPR's Lynn Neary says Mowat's was accused of not spending as much time with wolves as he let on in Never Cry Wolf, which was based on his own experience studying the animals in Northern Canada.

"But that did not faze Mowat, who said his critics had missed the 'truth' behind the 'facts.'"

[Mr Lick]

Colin Pillinger dies after brain haemorrhage



Prof Pillinger's family said he died peacefully in hospital

British planetary scientist Colin Pillinger, best known for his 2003 attempt to land a spacecraft on Mars, has died aged 70, his family have said.

Prof Pillinger was at his home in Cambridge when he suffered a brain haemorrhage and fell into a deep coma.

His family said he later died at Addenbrooke's Hospital without regaining consciousness.

His death was "devastating and unbelievable", they said in a statement.
'Unfinished business'

The space scientist built a probe to search for Martian life, naming it Beagle 2 after Charles Darwin's HMS Beagle.

It was the first time an individual researcher had sent their own vessel into space.

The spacecraft vanished without trace but Prof Pillinger carried on pushing space agencies to complete what he called "unfinished business on Mars".

He was a professor in interplanetary science at the Open University, where he headed the Department of Physical Sciences until 2005.

He was awarded a CBE in 2003.

Prof Pillinger was married to Judith with whom he had two children, Shusanah and Nicolas

[FloridaBorn]

Robert William 'Bob' Hoskins. 1942 - 2014

Wow this was a shock to me, hadn't heard an thing about it..

[harrybarracuda]

LOS ANGELES - Famed research test pilot Bill Dana, who flew the X-15 rocket plane and other pioneering aircraft during the birth of the space age, has died at age 83.

Dana died Tuesday at an assisted living facility in suburban Phoenix, according to an announcement Wednesday by NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California.

Starting in the 1950s, Dana logged more than 8,000 hours in more than 60 types of aircraft, ranging from helicopters and sailplanes to the hypersonic X-15, which he flew to a maximum altitude of nearly 59 miles, reaching a top speed of 3,897 mph.

In 2005, he was awarded civilian astronaut wings for two of those flights to the edge of space - nearly 40 years after his X-15 flights - because at the time, NASA did not confer astronaut wings on its pilots.

Dana also flew NASA's so-called lifting body aircraft that led to the design of the space shuttle.

Dana was born in Pasadena, California, but grew up in Bakersfield, where he fell in love with aircraft as a child.

"I remember seeing B-25s and P-38s flying over at the start of World War II and there was something very glorious and exciting about the warbirds, and I was attracted to it and I never really lost my ambition to fly those airplane(s)," he told Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine in a 1997 interview.

Dana graduated from West Point, became an Air Force officer and was a fighter pilot in the Korean War. He later obtained an aeronautical engineering degree from the University of Southern California and was hired as an aeronautical research engineer at NASA's High-Speed Flight Station in the Mojave Desert - now called Armstrong Flight Research Center - in 1958.

He became a test pilot the next year.

The X-15 flights were the high point of his career because of the plane's extraordinary performance, he said in the 1997 interview.

His first flight lasted just 10 minutes but knocked him for a loop.

The plane had a "great big engine and lots of acceleration and things happening very, very fast and I really didn't catch up with the airplane until I was back down to about Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound), where I had been before in fighter airplanes," he recalled.

Over the years, Dana took the danger of his profession in stride.

"There's a whole staff of engineers in the control room watching every move you make and my fear was that I would do something that would embarrass myself in the eyes of my peers, and that was the fear," he told Air & Space Magazine. "I don't ever remember being afraid I was going to die."

A heart attack forced him to give up flying but in 1993 he became the center's chief engineer.

He retired in 1998 but later worked as a contract employee writing histories of some of its programs, and during budget cutbacks even gave up his salary to do volunteer work in the center's history office, NASA said.

[Mr Lick]

Oscar Knox: Mallusk boy 'Wee Oscar' dies after cancer battle



Five-year-old Oscar Knox passed away on Thursday


Related Stories

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Oscar Knox, the County Antrim boy whose long battle against an aggressive form of cancer captured the hearts of many people in Northern Ireland, has died.

Oscar, who was five, died on Thursday after a two-and-a-half year battle with neuroblastoma.

His family launched the Oscar Knox Appeal campaign during his illness.

On Friday they tweeted: "Our beautiful, amazing and much loved son Oscar James Knox gained his angel wings yesterday afternoon. Sleep tight little man."

In a full statement, his family said: "Oscar has brought unimaginable joy to our family with his smile and his infectious personality.


"Our little superhero achieved so much in his short life and inspired so many people throughout the world to do so many amazing things. It is something we are incredibly proud of.


Remembering Oscar

Peter Coulter BBC News NI


I was walking down a street in Belfast city centre about a year ago when a mother was walking along with her young child.

The child stopped and looked at a picture of Oscar Knox in a shop window and asked his mother why that little boy had no hair.

She explained that he was very sick and told her son he was being treated for cancer and that had made his hair fall out. The child nodded and asked a few more questions with this new understanding of cancer.

It was two years ago when BBC News NI first met Oscar Knox and since then his family has tirelessly campaigned to raise awareness of high risk neuroblastoma and the importance of blood donations.

His parents Stephen and Leona began their Twitter account to provide a support network for other parents whose children had the same condition.

Raising awareness has always been top of his parents list. Blood donations in NI and understanding of high risk neuroblastoma did increase during their campaign.

Oscar Knox was a normal five-year-old who loved pizza, Sugarpuffs, playing with his sister Izzy, Scooby Doo and Spiderman.

Oscar loved his doctors and nurses and they adored him. It will be a tough time for the medical staff who have supported him over the last two and a half years.


"We wish to take this opportunity once again to thank all of Oscar's followers the world over for everything they have done for us and for the wonderful kindness and generosity that has been shown.

"We also want to thank the teams at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children and NI Children's Hospice whose kindness and compassion has been nothing short of amazing.

"Nothing can ever take the pain away but knowing we were supported so much and that Oscar was loved so much, brings great comfort."

The family have asked for privacy in the coming days.

A ceremony, described as a "celebration of Oscar's life", will be held in St Bernard's Church, Glengormley, on Sunday, 11 May.

"We welcome friends, family and supporters of Oscar to join us in procession from the NI Children's Hospice at 10.15am on May 11 and onwards to St Bernard's Church."

A strictly private cremation will follow.


Twitter updates

Oscar was first diagnosed with the disease in November 2011.

After intensive treatment, 'Wee Oscar' was finally given the all clear in April 2013, but it returned in August 2013.

In October 2012, he received specialist treatment in America after his family reached their £250,000 fundraising target to pay for the immunotherapy treatment.

After his initial diagnosis, his parents set up the Twitter account so they could update friends and family on Oscar's condition each time he was in hospital.

However, the account quickly attracted thousands of followers.

Among them were families whose children have the same condition.

The Twitter account became a phenomenon in June 2012, after a group of Irish football fans posed for pictures in Dublin airport before heading off to the European football championship with a flag saying "Angela Merkel thinks we're at work".


Celtic fan

Oscar - who had been allowed to stay up late to watch the matches - and his father Stephen, made their own flag saying "My ma thinks I'll be in bed early" and then tweeted a picture of it.

The 'Merkel lads', as they became known, were so touched by the picture they decided to auction their flag to raise money for the toddler.

When they arrived back in Dublin they drove straight from the airport to Mallusk to meet Oscar

Oscar, was a fan of Glasgow Celtic and the football club joined in the fundraising campaign.

Last July, when Belfast side, Cliftonville, went to Glasgow for their UEFA Champions League qualifier, Oscar donned his green and white shirt and led Celtic out before the game as team mascot alongside captain, Scott Brown.



In a statement on Friday, Celtic said: "This is absolutely devastating news and our thoughts and prayers are with Oscar's parents, Stephen and Leona, and his little sister, Izzie, at this desperately sad time.

"We can't even begin to understand the pain of their loss, but I hope that there will be a small measure of consolation in knowing that there was genuine love and affection for Oscar from the Celtic family throughout the world.

"Oscar's courage throughout his illness was truly inspirational, and it was a real pleasure for everyone at the club to meet Oscar when he was our team mascot last July."

Belfast boxer Carl Frampton said it was very sad news.

"I'm kind of in shock, because with the wee man, I knew he was very, very sick, but you always expected him to get better because he is such a fighter," he said.

"It's just heart-breaking

[BaitongBoy]

^RIP, little guy...That is a tough one to read...

[david44]

Rest in peace

[FloridaBorn]

Finally at rest, no more pain little guy, most tragic stuff when it's a child at the beginning of life. I'm going to hug my boys now.... After I wipe my eyes..

[peterpan]

yea, its terrible for someone so young, thankfully my daughters were healthy at birth, and remain so. But I see a little fellow die at that age.

I think where is Jesus when you need him? he promised he would look after us.

[harrybarracuda]

Leslie "Les" Carlson has died at the age of 81. Cause of death was not released. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actor was found in his Toronto home on May 3.

Over his career, Carlson appeared in various David Cronenberg films, such as "The Dead Zone" (1983), "The Fly" (1986) and, most recently, "Camera" (2000), but will be best remembered for his role as Barry Convex in the sci-fi classic, "Videodrome."

[TizMe]

Reg Gasnier, rugby league legend, has passed away

Read more: Reg Gasnier, rugby league legend, has passed away

Rugby league Immortal Reg Gasnier has died aged 74.
Gasnier was one of the greatest players rugby league has ever produced, starring for the St George Dragons during their record run of 11 premierships, playing in seven of those grand finals. He passed away on Sunday evening.
Gasnier was nicknamed “Puff the Magic Dragon” and was dubbed the prince of centres, who made his mark in the game with electric footwork after making his debuted in 1959 having progressed from St George junior club Renown United.

[palexxxx]

Tommy Hafey RIP.


Four-time Richmond premiership coach Tom Hafey has died, aged 82 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[Mr Lick]

Alien designer HR Giger dies at 74



Giger also produced artwork for recording artists


The Swiss artist and designer of Ridley Scott's Alien, H. R. Giger, has died aged 74, a spokesperson at Giger's museum in Gruyere has confirmed.

He died of injuries sustained after he fell down stairs at his Zurich home.

Born in 1940, Giger was best known for his 'Xenomorph' alien in Scott's sci-fi horror masterpiece for which he won a visual effects Oscar in 1980.

He studied architecture and industrial design in Zurich and was known for creating strange dreamscapes.



Giger on the set of Alien, his most well-known work


Meticulously detailed, Giger's surrealist paintings were usually produced in large formats and then reworked with an airbrush and usually feature scenes of humans and machines fused together.

Giger described his style as "biomechanical".

One of his pieces in particular - Necronom IV - inspired the titular alien killer in Sir Ridley's hit film.

He also worked on Aliens 3 (1992) and, more recently, appeared in a documentary about director Alejandro Jodorowsky's unmade film of the book Dune.


Giger's museum is based in the historic, walled city of Gruyeres


In 1998, he opened his own museum in Gruyeres, Switzerland, which alongside his own paintings and sculptures, displays works from his own art collection from the likes of Salvador Dali, Dada and Ernst Fuchs.

The museum is run by the artist's wife, Carmen Maria Scheifele Giger.

In December 2004, Giger received the prestigious award, La Medaille de la Ville de Paris, at Paris City Hall.

Last year, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in Seattle, along with fellow inductees, David Bowie and JRR Tolkien.

His work has also been exhibited around the world, including recent retrospectives in Hamburg, Germany, Moscow and Istanbul

[harrybarracuda]

All a bit mysterious....

Malik Bendjelloul, the cash-strapped film maker who shot to Hollywood stardom overnight with the Oscar-winning music documentary "Searching for Sugar Man" about an obscure Mexican-American folk-rocker who became a cult hero in apartheid-era South Africa, has died. He was 36.

Swedish police spokeswoman Pia Glenvik told The Associated Press that Bendjelloul died in Stockholm late Tuesday, but wouldn't specify where his body was found or the cause of death.

She said no crime is suspected in relation to the filmmaker's death.

"Searching for Sugar Man," which tells the story of how singer-songwriterr Sixto Rodriguez became a superstar in South Africa without knowing about it, won the Oscar for best documentary in 2013. It was the first time a Swedish film had won an Oscar since Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander" in 1984.

"Oh boy!" Bendjelloul exclaimed when he accepted the Oscar for best documentary feature from Ben Affleck last year and proceeded to thank "one of the best singers ever, Rodriguez."

The film also won several other prizes, including a British BAFTA for best documentary and the Swedish Guldbagge award.

Bendjelloul came across details about Rodriguez during a trip to Cape Town and decided to tell his story. The Detroit construction worker's albums had flopped in the United States in the 1970s and he disappeared from public life. But unbeknownst to him, his records had developed a cult following in South Africa during the apartheid era, when boycotts cut the country off from the rest of the world. His music gained a massive following among white liberals who were inspired by his songs protesting the Vietnam War, racial inequality, abuse of women and social mores.

His South African fans came to believe that Rodriguez had died a bitter death, but it wasn't until after the end of the apartheid regime and the advent of the Internet that the truth was revealed. The film follows the quest of two South African fans to determine Rodriguez's fate. They found him living in obscurity and working on construction sites in Detroit, and brought him to South Africa for a triumphant concert tour.

"I had never heard anything close to this in terms of the emotional content and the spectacular way things evolved. My jaw just dropped," Bendjelloul told The Hollywood Reporter after winning the Oscar.

The documentary's Oscar win led to yet another career rebirth for Rodriguez who has been touring major venues in the U.S. and introducing American audiences to the songs he wrote four decades ago.

Rodriguez was performing Tuesday night in Detroit, but his manager said he wouldn't be making a comment on Bendjelloul's death. Efforts to reach the singer's daughter were unsuccessful.

The soft-spoken, unassuming Bendjelloul worked as a reporter for Sweden's public broadcaster SVT before resigning to backpack around the world. He got the idea for "Searching for Sugar Man" — his first feature film — during one of his trips, but it would take him more than four years to complete the film.

Bendjelloul later recalled that when the film was 90 percent finished, after he had been editing it for three years, the main sponsor said it was lousy and withdrew support.

At this stage he had already used up all his savings and borrowed money from friends, so he stopped working on the movie and took other jobs to make ends meet. In the end, he completed the film by shooting the final parts with his smartphone and making his own animations.

Bendjelloul was born in 1977 to Swedish translator Veronica Schildt Bendjelloul and doctor Hacene Bendjelloul and acted in the Swedish TV series "Ebba and Didrik" as a child during the 1990s. He studied journalism and media production at the Linnaeus University of Kalmar in southern Sweden before joining SVT where he worked as a reporter on the culture program "Kobra."

Bendjelloul's death came as a shock to many in the close-knit Swedish film community.

"This terrible news has put us all in a state of shock," Swedish Film Institute spokesman Jan Goransson told the AP.

"Malik Bendjelloul was one of our most exciting film makers, which the Oscar award last year was a clear proof of," Goransson said.

He said Bendjelloul had been working on a new movie before his death but wouldn't give any details.

The film director has previously said he escaped the Hollywood hype around him after the Oscar award to go on a safari and has been working on a film about a man who could communicate with elephants.

Swedish film critic Hynek Pallas, who traveled with Bendjelloul to Hollywood when he received the Oscar, described him as a modest, but very determined man.

"He was an incredibly talented storyteller," Pallas wrote. "He had the strength of a marathon runner; to work on his film for so many years and sometimes without money, then you have a goal."

Bendjelloul is survived by his parents and brother Johar Bendjelloul. Funeral arrangements weren't immediately known.

Copyright Associated Press

Update: "The police did not specify the cause of death and said no crime was suspected."

[harrybarracuda]

This is such breaking news I can find a link but the story isn't loading, but apparently the old bastard has popped his clogs.

Update (Translated from Polish): "As reported "Fakt", followed by "Super Express" and "Newsweek", is dead Wojciech Jaruzelski. Communist dictator would die of cancer. During the last days his condition had deteriorated."

Poland's Gen. Jaruzelski, 90, Suffers a Stroke
WARSAW, Poland May 13, 2014 (AP)
Associated Press
A hospital spokesman says that Poland's last communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, has suffered a stroke and is in serious but stable condition.

Col. Grzegorz Kade, spokesman for Warsaw's Military Medical Institute, said Tuesday that the 90-year-old Jaruzelski was already hospitalized when he was diagnosed with stroke symptoms on Sunday. Kade said Jaruzelski has been moved to the intensive care unit and is conscious.

Jaruzelski has been repeatedly hospitalized in recent years with serious health problems including pneumonia and cancer, for which he had chemotherapy.

He has been declared unfit to stand trial over his decision to impose martial law in 1981 against the Solidarity freedom movement, and over his role in the shooting deaths of protesting workers in 1970.

[bobo746]

Alien designer HR Giger dies at 74

Great movies.

[Tickiteboo]

BBC News - Fundraiser Stephen Sutton dies at 19

Stephen Sutton dies at 19.

Maybe not 'famous' in the true sense, but a real inspiration. RIP young man.

[harrybarracuda]

BBC News - Fundraiser Stephen Sutton dies at 19

Stephen Sutton dies at 19.

Maybe not 'famous' in the true sense, but a real inspiration. RIP young man.

Very very sad news, and what a unique individual.

RIP mate, you did good.

As the saying goes, the light that burns brightest, burns shortest.

[bobo746]

^ had no idea, RIP the good bloke.

[Mr Lick]

What a great lad. The world didn't deserve you son. R.I.P.

[FloridaBorn]

BBC News - Fundraiser Stephen Sutton dies at 19

Stephen Sutton dies at 19.

Maybe not 'famous' in the true sense, but a real inspiration. RIP young man.

Very very sad news, and what a unique individual.

RIP mate, you did good.

As the saying goes, the light that burns brightest, burns shortest.

Yep, left himself a proud legacy in just a few of his short years here.. Many would be proud to accomplish anywhere near as much good over their entire lives.

[Gravesend Dave]

R.I.P Stephen a fine young man.

[david44]

An example cetainly to me and hope many others of what you can achive.
R.I.P. and the funds will be his leagcy to compassion

[Latindancer]

'Sugar Man' director killed himself: family

Published: 14 May 2014 00:25 GMT+02:00



"I can confim that it was suicide and that he had been depressed for a short period of time," the acclaimed director's brother Johar Bendjelloul told the Aftonbladet newspaper the day after Malik's body was found.


'Sugar Man' director killed himself: family - The Local