The RIP Famous Person Thread

[Necron99]

He's died before and come back.
I'll be waiting...

[kmart]

[harrybarracuda]

^ Oh you could have let the poor bloke rest in dignity.

Oh, alright then.

[Latindancer]

Amazing what you find out about people from Wikipedia :

Nimoy and Star Trek co-star William Shatner first worked together on an episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Project Strigas Affair" (1964). Their characters were from opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, though with his saturnine looks, Nimoy was the villain, with Shatner playing a reluctant U.N.C.L.E. recruit.

Leonard Nimoy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Davis Knowlton]

I have never watched an episode of Star Trek. Just saying.....

[klong toey]

I have never watched an episode of Star Trek. Just saying.....

Spock mind meald with a rock classic Star Trek.

[harrybarracuda]

I still think IV was the best movie.

Kirk: You mean the profanity? That's simply the way they talk here. Nobody pays attention to you unless you swear every other word. You'll find it in all the literature of the period.
Spock: For example?
Kirk: Oh the collected works of Jacqueline Susann. The novels of Harold Robbins...
Spock: Ah, the "Giants".

[palexxxx]

I have never watched an episode of Star Trek. Just saying.....

Me too.

[BaitongBoy]

^No worries...But you did know who Spock was, na?...

[Takeovers]

I have never watched an episode of Star Trek. Just saying.....

Never mind. Otherwise I really like your attitude. I will forgive you.

[patsycat]

He and the rest of them frightened the shite out of me when i was little. I did watch it a bit when i was older but not enough to become a fan. Nor a Trekkie.

But i do remember him and his funny ears, RIP.

[nidhogg]

The impact of Star Trek was way out of proportion to the very short original run it had. The films obviously helped, but those early Trek really were the spark for much of what followed in Sci Fi series etc.

And come on, who could not enjoy:

Space: The final frontier
These are the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise
Its 5 year mission
To explore strange new worlds
To seek out new life and new civilizations - and if possible f*ck the females.....555

[harrybarracuda]

The impact of Star Trek was way out of proportion to the very short original run it had.

It was basically a competitor to Lost In Space and lasted as long.

But Lost In Space just got really silly, with musical numbers and all sorts of fantasy shit.

Star Trek often had a lot to say about racial abuse, the cold war, etc. I thought it was quite clever.

[BaitongBoy]

Sigh...And they "invented" the mobile phone...What a Pandora's Box they opened there...

[harrybarracuda]

Richard Bakalyan, Tough Guy Character Actor and a Cop in 'Chinatown,' Dies at 84



Richard Bakalyan, the quintessential tough guy character actor who sparred with Jack Nicholson and shot Faye Dunaway in Chinatown — just one of his many dozens of appearances in films and on television — has died. He was 84.

Bakalyan, who played juvenile delinquents, cops and gangsters as well as several henchmen on TV’s Batman during his more than a half-century in show business, died unexpectedly Friday at Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira, N.Y., his family announced.

Given the nickname “Dicky B.” by Nancy Sinatra, Bakalyan played opposite her father, Frank Sinatra, in Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964), Von Ryan’s Express (1965) and None but the Brave (1965), and he wielded a machine gun (but didn’t have a line of dialogue) in The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967).

Early in his career, Bakalyan played young men gone astray in such films as The Delinquents (1957), directed by Robert Altman; The Delicate Delinquent (1957), the first film Jerry Lewis starred in following his breakup with Dean Martin; The Brothers Rico (1957); Juvenile Jungle (1958); and Hot Car Girl (1958).

In The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), the native of Watertown, Mass., portrayed a thief; he had a scene with Jesus (Max von Sydow) as both men are nailed to crosses.

“My mother back east, she said, ‘Can’t you play a nice guy? What are the neighbors gonna say?' ” Bakalyan recalled in an interview for The Face Is Familiar series. “I said, ‘Ma, I’m an actor, gimme a break here.’ Except when I got The Greatest Story Ever Told. I called her and said, ‘Ma, I’m playing another gangster, another heavy, but I’m hanging around with the right people.’ ”

In Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974), Bakalyan played a cop, Loach, who gives J.J. Gittes (Nicholson) a hard time after he sees the private detective sporting a conspicuous bandage.

“What happened to your nose, Gittes? Someone slam a bedroom window on it?” he teases Nicholson, who replies: “Nope, your wife got excited and she crossed her legs a little too quick. Understand what I mean, pal?”

Toward the end of the film, he shoots Dunaway’s character, Evelyn Mulwray, as she’s driving away in the darkness.

Bakalyan also appeared in such films as Paratroop Command (1959), Up Periscope (1959), -30- (1959), Pressure Point (1962), The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969), The Strongest Man in the World (1975) and The Man With Bogart’s Face (1980).

He was the narrator in Disney's It’s Tough to Be a Bird, which won an Academy Award in 1970 for best short subject (cartoons), and he voiced Dinky in another Disney project, The Fox and the Hound (1981).

On Batman, he was a henchman for The Joker (Cesar Romero), posing as a green alien in an attempt to frighten the citizens of Gotham City. He also was seen in episodes featuring the villains The Riddler (Frank Gorshin), King Tut (Victor Buono) and Louie the Lilac (Milton Berle).

A veteran of the U.S. Air Force who served during the Korean War, Bakalyan showed up on dozens of other TV shows — most often as bad guys — including The Rebel, The Untouchables, Wagon Train, The Girl From U.N.C.L.E., Mod Squad, Cannon, Mannix, Kojak, The Rockford Files, Vega$, Baywatch Nights and Millennium.

Bakalyan knew he wasn’t a leading man but didn’t seem to have a problem with that.

“Some of the bigger films, in order to get the money to make them, they need the certain stars that people will stand in line to watch,” he said in The Face Is Familiar interview. “They’re not going to stand around the corner for me. However, they’re going to enjoy what I do because I’m going to fit into the puzzle.”

Survivors include his brother William, sisters-in-law Adelia and Marianne and nephews and nieces Richard, David, Beverly and Carol.

[Eliminator]

You have to give then their do, lasted a long time acting and did some very fine work over the years. RIP great actors.

[harrybarracuda]

Quite bizarre, and a bit sad this one. It seems she fell over pissed with a wine glass in her hand, fell on it and severed her jugular and bled out before her husband got home.

Great bonking music that Brownstone, the background for me to many an entertaining night with numerous ladies from the cabin crew fraternity. They all got very amorous when you stuck it on.

LOS ANGELES -- Charmayne "Maxee" Maxwell, a member of the 1990s girl group Brownstone -- best known for the hit "If You Love Me" -- has died after cutting herself in a fall at home, a representative said yesterday.



Courtney Barnes told The Associated Press that Maxwell, 46, was at her home in Los Angeles on Friday when she fell and cut her neck on a drinking glass. Her husband, producer Carsten "Soulshock" Schack, found her sometime later and called 911. She was rushed to a hospital where she died, Barnes said.

Maxwell is survived by Schack and her 11-year-old son, Nicolaj Hojer. In a statement, they said they were devastated by Maxwell's sudden and tragic death, calling her a devoted wife and mother.

RIP love, rotten luck.

[harrybarracuda]

To The Manor Born actor Gerald Sim dies aged 89
By Western Daily Press | Posted: March 09, 2015



Gerald Sim, who has died at the age of 89, was a supporting actor in television series and films.

He was probably best known for his performance in the original series of To the Manor Born as the smooth local rector who is not unhappy when Audrey fforbes-Hamilton, played by Penelope Keith, the newly widowed lady of the manor, has to downsize.

He hopes this means she will no longer interfere in the church, but he welcomes the arrival of her nouveau riche successor Richard DeVere, played by Peter Bowles, who turns out to be a generous donor to the church's funds.

Sim often found himself in the role of vicar in sitcoms, including Keeping Up Appearances, Love Hurts and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin – in which he gave an address at Reggie's "memorial" service.

The son of a bank employee, he was born Gerald Grant Sim in Liverpool on June 4 1925, the younger brother of the actress Sheila Sim, who would go on to marry the actor and director Richard Attenborough. The family moved to Croydon when he was young, and Gerald went to Cranbrook School in Kent.

According to his obituary in the Daily Telegraph, he was inspired to become an actor during the Second World War after listening to John Gielgud in The Great Ship, a wireless play, in which the actor played a wounded officer in the Western Desert who dreams of the end of the war.

"I was mesmerised by the sound of Gielgud's voice and the pleasure of the words," Sim recalled. "It had never occurred to me until that moment that I could be an actor."

After training at Rada he went on to work in rep and made around 100 film and television appearances.

His first appearance was in the 1947 film Fame Is the Spur . He appeared in seven films directed by his brother-in-law: Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Young Winston (1972), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Gandhi (1982), Cry Freedom (1987), Chaplin (1992) and Shadowlands (1993).

During the 1960s he featured in several of Bryan Forbes's films, including The Whisperers (1967), with Eric Portman and Edith Evans as a lonely old woman who thinks imaginary creatures are spying on her, little realising that her family are plotting to take her life savings.

Sim starred in Roy Ward Baker's 1971 Hammer horror Doctor Jekyll and Sister Hyde.

On television he played doctors, priests and policemen in numerous serials, including The New Avengers; Edward and Mrs Simpson; Coronation Street; The Professionals; Bergerac; and Miss Marple.

In 2007 he made his final appearance on television, as the rector in a 25th anniversary special episode of To the Manor Born.

In later life, according to the Telegraph, he lived with his sister and brother-in-law at Denville Hall, the actors' retirement home in Northwood, north London. He died in December 11.

Gerald Sim's wife, the actress Deirdre Brennan, predeceased him. His sister, Sheila Sim, Lady Attenborough, survives him.

To The Manor Born actor Gerald Sim dies aged 89 | Western Daily Press

[palexxxx]

Stuart Wagstaff, legendary Australian entertainer, dies aged 90


Stuart Wagstaff, legendary Australian entertainer, dies aged 90

Stuart Wagstaff, the actor, singer and raconteur, and one of Australia's best known showbusiness identities, has died.
Wagstaff passed away peacefully at Castlecrag Private Hospital, aged 90. The legendary entertainer was born on February 13, 1925, in Great Durnford, Wiltshire, in the United Kingdom.

[panama hat]

Sad news . . .

[harrybarracuda]

I'm glad that he got to see his story win an Oscar and hopefully get a little more publicity for degenerative diseases.

RIP mate.

Richard Glatzer Dead: 'Still Alice' Director Dies, Aged 63
The Huffington Post UK | By Daniel Welsh
Posted: 12/03/2015 08:45 GMT Updated: 1 hour ago




Film director Richard Glatzer has died at the age of 63.

Richard’s publicist has confirmed that he died in Los Angeles on Tuesday, after battling ALS for four years, better known in the UK as motor neuron disease.

His latest project was ‘Still Alice’, a film which he co-directed with his husband, Wash Westmoreland, who said on Wednesday he was “devastated”, following the news of Richard’s death, calling him a “true artist and a brilliant man”.

‘Still Alice’ has received massive critical acclaim and multiple nominations during awards season, even earning Julianne Moore a Golden Globe, a Bafta and her first ever Oscar for her portrayal of the film’s titular character.

During her acceptance speech at the Academy Awards, Julianne praised Richard, telling the audience: “When Richard was diagnosed with ALS, Wash asked him what he wanted to do. Did he want to travel? Did he want to see the world? He said he wanted to make movies. And that's what he did.”

Despite Richard’s ailing health, his publicist said in a statement that he still “inspired” members of the cast on the set of ‘Still Alice’.

“On set, he inspired the cast and crew with his perseverance, co-directing the film by typing with one finger into a text-to-speech app on his iPad,” the statement read.

Before finding success with ‘Still Alice’, Richard and Wash co-directed ‘The Last Of Robin Hood’, starring Kevin Kline and Dakota Fanning, and ‘Quinceañera’, an indie drama about a Mexican family.

[harrybarracuda]

LONDON: British science fiction and fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett, whose Discworld novels have sold tens of millions of copies worldwide, died today at the age of 66, his publisher said.



"Terry passed away in his home, with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family," said Larry Finlay, managing director at Transworld Publishers.

"The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds."

In 2007, Pratchett was diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which he called an "embuggerance", and became a campaigner to raise awareness of the disease. He was also a patron of assisted suicide campaign group Dignity in Dying.

Pratchett was famed worldwide as the creator of the Discworld novels about a flat, parallel universe balanced on the back of four elephants which themselves stand on the shell of a giant turtle.

The first book in the series, "The Colour of Magic", was published in 1983 and he completed the 41st last summer, before succumbing to the final stages of the Alzheimer's.

"As all who read him know, Discworld was his vehicle to satirise this world: he did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humour and constant invention," Finlay said.

In total Pratchett wrote more than 70 books over the course of his career, and Finlay said that in the last few difficult years, "it was his writing that sustained him".

"Terry enriched the planet like few before him," he said, adding: "His legacy will endure for decades to come."

Pratchett is survived by his wife Lyn and daughter Rhianna.Story First Published: March 12, 2015 21:14 IST

[patsycat]

Never read any of his books but respect what he did for assisted suicide. And hopefully it will carry on after his death.

RIP

[steve down under]

[nidhogg]

Ah crap. That's sad. Thanks Terry for all the wondrous words.