The RIP Famous Person Thread

[cyrille]

[crackerjack101]

Nice one Cy.

Very well done.

[DrB0b]

Brian Cant, Play School presenter, dies at 83

That's Chloe Ashcroft with him, I think, holding Jemima. Chloe was my first love, I must have been all of four years old.

[cyrille]

Brian Cant, Play School presenter, dies at 83

That's Chloe Ashcroft with him, I think, holding Jemima. Chloe was my first love.

Decent pick, looking back.

How old were you when you moved onto the other options?

[katie23]

Michael Nyqvist, a Swedish actor, died of lung cancer at the age of 56. I last saw him play the cult leader in the movie Colonia, which is about Colonia Dignidad, a cult in Chile.

I thought he was in his 60s - looked older bcos of his role, I guess. RIP to Michael. SorryI can't post links, am on phone.

[Digby Fantona]

Done it for you, Katie

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2017...qvist-obituary

The Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist, who has died aged 56 of lung cancer, became an international star playing the investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist in the original film adaptations (2009) of Stieg Larsson’s bestselling crime novel The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its two sequels. He was a perfect fit for the character; Niels Arden Oplev, who directed Dragon Tattoo, had no doubts casting him, explaining: “He is a Swedish teddy bear, women would feel safe in his arms.”

This was crucial: the Dragon Tattoo’s original title in Swedish was Men Who Hate Women, and both the mystery at the centre of the story and the character of Lisbeth Salander, the tattooed girl (played by Noomi Rapace), are rooted in abuse. Even Nykvist’s character’s name recalls Astrid Lindgren’s boy detective Kalle Blomkvist, suggesting innocence; Nyqvist plays him as a man female viewers would love.

His calm persistence holds together the two sequels, which lack the neat mystery of Dragon Tattoo. The first, The Girl Who Played With Fire, is Salander’s revenge; the second, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, is a complex political conspiracy thriller; Nyqvist’s understated acting is crucial to their success. Swedes “use thrillers in a different way”, he said. “We never write a thriller like, ‘who is the murderer?’. The big question in most of our thrillers is why.” The three films were subsequently extended and broadcast in 2010 as a six-part Swedish TV miniseries, Millennium. (A Hollywood English-language adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was released in 2011.)

Nyqvist had always moved easily from character acting to leads; now he was adopted by Hollywood as a nuclear madman in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011), and then as the memorable Viggo Tarasov battling Keanu Reeves’ eponymous hitman, and stealing the show from him, in John Wick (2014). But he also continued to take the more sensitive roles that had attracted Oplev to him, roles that often involved disturbed family relationships that metaphorically echoed his own.

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Nykvist was born Rolf Ake Mikael in Stockholm, but soon placed in an orphanage. When he was a year old he was adopted; his father was a lawyer, his mother a writer. When he was six he learned that he was adopted and was told that his biological father was Italian and his biological mother Swedish. In his 2010 memoir, Just After Dreaming, he explained, “I was not allowed to talk about being adopted when growing up. I walked around feeling like I was going to explode.” In the 1990s, Nyqvist tracked down his biological parents, meeting his mother once for a cup of coffee and then travelling to Florence, where he met his pharmacist father and two half-sisters.

During a year as a high-school exchange student in Omaha, Nebraska, Nyqvist discovered acting, playing in a production of Death of a Salesman. He returned to Sweden to study ballet but soon gave it up to study at the Malmö Theatre Academy. He began acting in theatre, and made his screen debut in a 1982 television adaptation of Strindberg’s Comrades. He moved between the stage and screen until, in 1997, he attracted attention as a detective in the first series of TV films based on Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö’s Martin Beck novels.

His Swedish breakthrough came in Lukas Moodysson’s 2000 film Together, playing a drunken abusive father. He was nominated for a Guldbagge (“Golden Beetle”, the Swedish Oscars), for best supporting actor. He played another abusive father in Dan Ying’s Home Sweet Home (2001) and the following year won the best actor Guldbagge for The Guy in the Grave Next Door, playing a simple farmer in a romantic comedy, and had a leading role in the Swedish TV mini-series adaptation of Henning Mankell’s Wallander novel The Fifth Woman.

His film parts grew more interesting. In Details (2003) he was a publishing editor having an affair with a young novelist. As It Is in Heaven (2004) was nominated for an Oscar as best foreign film; Nyqvist earned another Guldbagge nomination as the famous conductor who returns to the small town of his unhappy childhood and winds up taking over the choir.

Mother of Mine (2005) earned him yet another Guldbagge nomination, and in 2007 in The Black Pimpernel he played Harald Edelstam, the Swedish ambassador who saved many people during the Pinochet coup in Chile. That year he also appeared in Arn: The Knight Templar, an adaptation of Jan Guillou’s crusader novels, reprising his character in a 2010 TV mini-series, and returned to Wallander in another TV series.

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After the Stieg Larsson films, he stayed with conspiracies in the US TV series Zero Hour (2013), and returned to Swedish films with one close to his heart, as an amnesiac father being helped by his estranged daughter in My So-Called Father (2014). Nyqvist returned to 1973 Chile playing a cult leader in Florian Gallenberger’s The Colony (2015), an Emma Watson vehicle that was a flop.

In 2016 he was exceptional in Matthew Ross’s independent feature Frank & Lola and in Pernilla August’s adaptation of Hjalmar Söderberg’s Swedish classic A Serious Game. His most recent screen roles include the South African president HF Verwoerd in the Nelson Mandela miniseries Madiba (2017), and he played an Austrian bishop in Terrence Malick’s Radegund, starring Matthias Schoenaerts as a conscientious objector during the second world war, and another Russian in the thriller Hunter Killer, both to be released later this year. He reunited with Schoenaerts in the filming of Kursk, about the submarine disaster, which is still in production.

In his memoir, Nyqvist wrote: “I think the whole mission of being here on Earth is to accept what you have, and my journey was to accept my own life and not pretend anything else. I think that’s what we all struggle with.”

He is survived by his wife, Catharina Ehrnrooth, a film production designer, and their two children, Ellen and Arthur.

[chassamui]

That's Chloe Ashcroft with him, I think, holding Jemima. Chloe was my first love, I must have been all of four years old

I had a similar crush on Susan Stranks.

[harrybarracuda]

Sally James did it for me (or I wished she would have).

[Digby Fantona]

Bradley Lowery: Sunderland fan dies after long illness - BBC News

Six-year-old Bradley Lowery, whose plight touched the lives of many people, has died after a long illness.
The Sunderland fan was diagnosed with neuroblastoma - a rare type of cancer - when he was 18 months old.
Bradley went on to be the club's mascot and became "best mates" with his hero, striker Jermain Defoe.
The club is due to play a friendly against Bury later, where there will be a minute's applause for the youngster before kick-off.

[yortyiam]

^Doesn't seem fair that someone so young loses their life before it has really begun. RIP little Bradley, you've shown us all to fight our troubles til the very end.

[misskit]

That's so sad. Just a little fellow.

[kmart]

Yep. Very sad. Lots of props to people like Jermain Defoe (in pic above) that took a lot of time out to spend with Bradley before he died. Also raising money and awareness for sufferers of this rare form of cancer.

Bradley Lowery has 'not long' left to live after family confirm young Sunderland fan's cancer is spreading | The Independent

[Digby Fantona]

There is a little girl in my town who suffers with the same disease and at least 25% of vehicles driven here show a multi-coloured rosette on the bonnets as a gesture of support.

[harrybarracuda]

Fifa whistleblower Chuck Blazer dies following cancer battle, aged 72
TOM DUTTON 2 hours ago



Former Fifa executive committee member Chuck Blazer, who turned whistleblower and gave evidence to the FBI about football-related corruption, has died at the age of 72.

The American, who revealed in 2013 that he had been diagnosed with cancer and diabetes, was banned from football activity for life by world football's governing body in July 2015.

The ban was announced by FIFA's ethics committee for his "many acts of misconduct" at FIFA and as general secretary of the CONCACAF confederation after Blazer pleaded guilty in the US court to charges of football-related corruption, including accepting bribes to vote for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup.

Blazer's death was announced by his lawyers, Eric Corngold and Mary Mulligan, who said in a statement: "We are truly saddened by the passing of our client and friend, Chuck Blazer.

"During his 20 years as CONCACAF general secretary, Chuck Blazer was instrumental in bringing the federation into the modern age. His misconduct, for which he accepted full responsibility, should not obscure Chuck's positive impact on international soccer.

"With Chuck's guidance and leadership, CONCACAF transformed itself from impoverished to profitable, with substantial benefits and improvements to all member associations, players and fans.

"Throughout his adult life, Chuck felt great pride in his service to soccer. In fact, he devoted 30 years of his life to soccer at all levels of the game, with his involvement ranging from coaching his children's youth teams to serving on FIFA's executive committee."

Blazer admitted in June 2015 that he and others took bribes totalling 10million US dollars for South Africa to host the 2010 World Cup and an undisclosed sum for Morocco's unsuccessful bid to host the 1998 tournament.

The revelation, contained in a plea bargain published by the US Department of Justice, came little more than 24 hours after Sepp Blatter announced he would be standing down as FIFA president as a corruption scandal gripped world football's governing body.

"I and others on the FIFA executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup," Blazer said in his testimony.

"Beginning in, or around, 2004 and continuing to 2011, I and others on the FIFA executive committee agreed to accept bribes in conjunction with the selection of South Africa as the host nation for the 2010 World Cup."

Blazer said bribes and kickbacks were also commonplace in the CONCACAF tournaments run in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

The statement from his lawyers added that Blazer regretted his conduct.

"The May 27, 2015 announcement of the Department of Justice's corruption case involving FIFA and CONCACAF made Chuck Blazer's important, multi-year cooperation in the investigation public," the statement continued.

"By assisting the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, and the United States Attorneys' Office for the Eastern District of New York in their joint investigation into the organisations governing international soccer and the companies conducting business with them, Chuck hoped to help bring transparency, accountability and fair play to CONCACAF, FIFA and soccer as a whole.

"Chuck also accepted responsibility for his own conduct by pleading guilty and owning up to his mistakes. Chuck felt profound sorrow and regret for his actions. He expressed sincere remorse towards his former constituents and colleagues, and to all of the soccer players and fans disappointed by his conduct.

"Chuck Blazer committed much of his life to making the world of soccer a better place for the players and the fans. He will be missed."

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foot...-a3586661.html

[Looper]

Liu Xiaobo: Chinese Nobel Prize Peace laureate, renowned dissident dies in hospital

Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate and renowned dissident Liu Xiaobo has died, the Government of the north-eastern Chinese city of Shenyang says.

The Shenyang legal bureau said in a brief statement on its website that Mr Liu had suffered multiple organ failure and efforts to save him had failed.

Mr Liu, a prominent participant in the Tiananmen pro-democracy protests of 1989, was jailed for 11 years in 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power" after helping to write a petition known as Charter 08 calling for sweeping political reforms.

He was recently moved from jail to a hospital in Shenyang to be treated for late-stage liver cancer.

http://www.xxx.xxx.xx/news/2017-07-1...t-dies/8707298

[bobo746]

George A. Romero, 'Night of the Living Dead' creator, dies at 77

Legendary filmmaker George A. Romero, father of the modern movie zombie and creator of the groundbreaking “Night of the Living Dead” franchise, has died at 77.
Romero died Sunday in his sleep after a “brief but aggressive battle with lung cancer,” according to a statement to The Times provided by his longtime producing partner, Peter Grunwald. Romero died while listening to the score of one his favorite films, 1952’s “The Quiet Man,” with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero, and daughter, Tina Romero, at his side, the family said.
Romero jump-started the zombie genre as the co-writer (with John A. Russo) and director of the 1968 movie “Night of the Living Dead,” which went to show future generations of filmmakers such as Tobe Hooper and John Carpenter that generating big scares didn’t require big budgets. “Living Dead” spawned an entire school of zombie knockoffs, and Romero’s sequels included 1978’s “Dawn of the Dead,” 1985’s “Day of the Dead,” 2005’s “Land of the Dead,” 2007’s “Diary of the Dead” and 2009’s “George A. Romero’s Survival of the Dead.”
The original film, since colorized, has become a Halloween TV staple. Among other notable aspects of the cult classic was the casting of a black actor, Duane Jones, in the lead role, marking a milestone in the horror genre.

[BaitongBoy]

Quite the "goatee" on the old feller....

[misskit]

Romero made some of the best horror movies ever. Will have to take a look at the colorized version of “Night of the Living Dead.”

[harrybarracuda]

Academy Award-Winning Actor Martin Landau, Known For 'Mission: Impossible' Dies At 89

July 17, 201712:18 AM ET



Academy Award-Winning Actor Martin Landau, known for his leading roles in North By Northwest and the 1960s Mission: Impossible TV series, has died. He was 89.

He died on Saturday of "unexpected complications" at the UCLA Medical Center, his publicist confirmed.

In his seven-decade acting career, Landau worked with a cast of Hollywood director greats, including Alfred Hitchcock, Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen and Tim Burton.

Francis Ford Coppola's 1988 film Tucker: The Man and His Dream won Landau a Golden Globe Award as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The following year, he was nominated for the same Oscar category for portraying philandering ophthalmologist Judah Rosenthal in Woody Allen's Crimes And Misdemeanors (1989).

It was his role as the haunting Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton's biopic, Ed Wood, that finally scored him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1994.

But he was probably best known for his three-season run as spy agent Rollin Hand in TV's Mission: Impossible, from 1966-1969.

Hand's character, billed as "The World's Greatest Impersonator," also pinned Landau as a master of disguise in the eyes of casting directors, who saw him suited to play a variety of roles, notes the The New York Times.

Landau also notably turned down the role of science officer, Mr. Spock, leading Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry to cast his second choice, Leonard Nimoy.

At age 17, the Brooklyn-born actor got his first job as a newspaper cartoonist at the New York Daily News. As he told Talk Of The Nation Host Neal Conan in 2010, he quit the News five years later to give acting a shot.

"I was being groomed to be the theatrical caricaturist. And I know if I got that job, I'd never quit. So I quit," Landau said. "I knew I wanted to go into the theater... I wanted to act."

In the same interview, the alumnus of the prestigious Actors Studio told an NPR listener that he had never had much trouble learning lines because "I think of them as thoughts and ideas" that the character wants to express.

Told by Conan that he lights up the screen with his wonderful smile, "Oh, that's so nice to hear. I mean, I always thought it looked like a piano."

Academy Award-Winning Actor Martin Landau, Known For 'Mission: Impossible' Dies At 89 : The Two-Way : NPR

[harrybarracuda]

Quite the "goatee" on the old feller....

Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't they cut his head off just to be sure?

[Eliminator]

That's NOT a goatee, it's just a beard. You might be looking at his EXTRA skin underneath his CHIN. 555

[harrybarracuda]

Harvey Atkin, Cagney and Lacey and SVU actor, dies at 74
CHANCELLOR AGARD@CHANCELLORAGARD

POSTED ON JULY 18, 2017 AT 5:16PM EDT




Harvey Atkin, who is known for his roles on Cagney & Lacey and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, died Monday at the age of 74 after a prolonged battle with cancer, EW has confirmed.

“It is with great sadness that we can confirm our beloved friend, husband, father and grandfather, Harvey, passed away peacefully last night following his battle with cancer,” said Atkin’s longtime friend and agent Larry Goldhar in a statement.

Hailing from Toronto, Atkin’s first big break was in the 1979 comedy Meatballs, starring Bill Murray. From there, he went on to play staff sergeant Ronald Coleman on CBS’ Cagney & Lacey from 1982 to 1988. He was also known for playing judges in the Law & Order universe, making his debut as Judge Ronald Manheim on the mothership series in 1999. He later played Judge Alan Ridenour on both Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Atkin most recently appeared as a judge on USA Network’s Suits.

His other credits include Funeral Home, Speed Zone, and Barney’s Version. He also lent his voice to the animated movie Heavy Metal, The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, and the Beetlejuice series.

Atkin is survived by his wife Celia, their children Lisa and Danny, three sisters, and five grandchildren.

Harvey Atkin dead: Law and Order actor dies at 74

[bobo746]

Red West, Actor, Songwriter and Longtime Elvis Presley Confidant, Dies at 81

The Memphis native appeared in 18 of the singer's features as well as in 'Road House,' 'Walking Tall' and TV's 'Black Sheep Squadron.'

Red West, a boyhood friend and member of Elvis Presley's "Memphis Mafia" who appeared in many of the singer's movies as well as in Road House, Black Sheep Squadron and Goodbye Solo, has died. He was 81.
West died Tuesday at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis after suffering an aortic aneurysm, his wife, Pat, told The Commercial Appeal newspaper.
West appeared as a stuntman/actor on dozens of episodes of CBS' futuristic Western series The Wild Wild West in the 1960s and a decade later had a regular role as Sgt. Andy Micklin on another Robert Conrad-starrer, NBC's Black Sheep Squadron.
He portrayed Red Webster, the owner of an auto parts store who gets his revenge against Ben Gazzara's character, in the Patrick Swayze classic Road House (1989) and was Sheriff Tanner in the Walking Tall movies released in 1973 and 1975.


Red West Dead: Actor, Songwriter and Elvis Presley Confidant Was 81 | Hollywood Reporter

[BaitongBoy]

Glenn Campbell, on the right?...Or a look-alike...

[bobo746]

Spot on.