The RIP Famous Person Thread

[harrybarracuda]

Stella Rimington, first British woman to become spy chief and M inspiration, dies at 90

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/stella-rimington-first-british-woman-to-become-spy-chief-and-m-inspiration-dies-at-90

[harrybarracuda]

Egads, my mother used to sing this over the cooker every Sunday for years.

Even her parrot learned it in later years, along with the phone ring and an uncanny Hilda Odgen impression.

Broadway star Jane Morgan, 101.





Broadway star dies aged 101 after decades in the spotlight | HELLO!

[Happy As Larry]

Terry Reid, British musician championed by the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page and more, dies aged 75

Known as ‘Superlungs’, Reid turned down the role of frontman in Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple to focus on solo career

Terry Reid, the British musician whose soaring and soulful voice earned him the nickname "Superlungs", and whose career intersected with the likes of the Rolling Stones and Jimmy Page, has died aged 75, as confirmed by his UK representative. He had been receiving cancer treatment in recent months.

Reid never had a hit on the UK charts, but albums such as 1973’s River remain critically acclaimed, and he was held in such high esteem that he was courted by Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple to be those bands’ lead singer, but turned each of them down. Aretha Franklin stated in 1968: “There are only three things happening in England: the Rolling Stones, the Beatles and Terry Reid.”

Born and raised in Cambridgeshire, Reid was a singer, guitarist and songwriter from his early teens, initially with local group the Redbeats. After supporting Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, Reid was asked to join the latter band. By 16, he was supporting the Rolling Stones on tour along with Ike & Tina Turner and the Yardbirds, and after breaking away as a solo artist (and befriending Jimi Hendrix), Reid supported the Stones again around the US.

Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page admired Reid and asked if he would join a new band he was forming, but Reid turned him down, citing his commitment to the Stones’ US tour. He recommended Robert Plant, singer in Band of Joy, along with that band’s drummer John Bonham: both men joined Page and formed Led Zeppelin. “I was intent on doing my own thing,” Reid told the Guardian in 2024. “I contributed half the band – that’s enough on my part!”

He also turned down Ritchie Blackmore’s offer to be Deep Purple’s lead singer after Rod Evans’s departure in 1969, but acknowledged: “It was very flattering. Ritchie was one hell of a guitar player.” Ian Gillan would become Deep Purple’s vocalist instead.
Reid signed a management and recording deal with svengali Mickie Most, who oversaw his first two studio albums. His debut Bang Bang, You’re Terry Reid contained a song he wrote when he was 14 years old, Without Expression, which would end up being covered by John Mellencamp, REO Speedwagon and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. There were other high-profile tour support slots, with Cream, Fleetwood Mac, Jethro Tull and more. But Reid’s albums were not commercial successes, and Reid, not seeing eye to eye creatively with Most, eventually split from him.

After some years in limbo thanks to a contractual dispute with Most, Reid returned to recording with 1973’s River, the first of three albums that decade, and moved to California. But he put his solo career on hold in the 1980s, focusing instead on session work with artists including Bonnie Raitt, Don Henley and Jackson Browne.

A comeback in 1991 with the Trevor Horn-produced album The Driver was not commercially or creatively successful, and though his cover of the Spencer Davis Group’s Gimme Some Lovin’ appeared on the soundtrack to Tom Cruise movie Days of Thunder, Reid later pronounced The Driver “unlistenable”.

Reid’s earlier albums became favourites of crate diggers and musos, and he was sought out by artists including DJ Shadow and Alabama 3 for guest appearances in his later years. Jack White’s band the Raconteurs, Marianne Faithfull and Chris Cornell were among the artists who covered his songs. He told the Guardian of unreleased sessions made with Dr Dre, who “became fascinated with [Reid’s album] Seed of Memory and invited me into his studio where we reworked it alongside his rappers, a fascinating experience”.

He also continued to tour, but had to cancel a recent run of live dates amid his cancer treatment. A crowdfunding appeal was set up to cover his medical expenses, which read: “Terry’s spirit remains strong, and he’s deeply grateful for the outpouring of care he’s already received.”

Reid is survived by his wife, Annette. Tributes have been paid by musicians including Joe Bonamassa, who said Reid was “one of the greatest to ever do it and a beautiful person and soul”.

Terry Reid, British musician championed by the Rolling Stones, Jimmy Page and more, dies aged 75 | Music | The Guardian

[Happy As Larry]

[Happy As Larry]

A great live version of this from Glastonbury 19711 with David Lindley, Alan White, and Linda Lewis used to be up on Youtube but sadly no longer

[harrybarracuda]

Jim Lovell, hero of Apollo XIII, aged 97.

Apollo 13 astronaut Jim Lovell dies | US News | Sky News

[beachbound]

^
four space missions as an astronaut, married to one woman, for 71 years, with four kids. Lived to 97 years young.

Does life get any larger than that?

RIP

[Happy As Larry]

Ray Brooks, British actor and voice of Mr Benn, dies aged 86

The EastEnders and Cathy Come Home actor had been diagnosed with dementia, his family revealed

Ray Brooks, the British actor who starred in EastEnders, Ken Loach’s drama Cathy Come Home and narrated the 1970s children’s TV show Mr Benn, has died at the age of 86.
Brooks died peacefully on Saturday with his loved ones at his bedside after a short illness, according to a statement shared by his family with the BBC.

The statement also revealed that Brooks had spent the last few years living with dementia.

Brooks’ sons, Will and Tom, said: “His three true loves were family (he also had a daughter Emma, who died in 2003), Fulham Football Club, and spending time in Brighton, where he was born.”
The cartoon Mr Benn, narrated by Brooks, follows the character who enters a magical costume shop and travels to new places based on the costumes he wears.

Only 13 episodes were released but the cartoon became well known with generations of children because episodes were repeated twice a year for more than 21 years.

“I was asked to do other cartoons because of Mr Benn – including Rupert the Bear, which was the worst thing I’ve ever done. I used to have a couple of pints before recording it, to numb my brain for his terrible rhymes,” Brooks told the Guardian in 2017, adding: “Grandmas come up to me and say their grandchildren are fed up with today’s cartoons, but they love the simplicity of Mr Benn, the fact that he’s very moral, always sorting out people’s problems – including dragons.”

Brooks went on to appear in a host of different primetime television shows including ITV’s Coronation Street, in which he played Norman Phillips, and EastEnders, where he played Joe Macer, who memorably killed his wife, the long-running character Pauline Fowler.

Brooks also starred in the BBC comedy drama Big Deal, which followed gambler Robbie Box as he tried to make a living by betting while also trying to maintain his relationship with Jan, played by Sharon Duce.
Brooks earned a number of film credits, including a role in The Knack … And How To Get It, which won the 1965 Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival.

A year later he starred in Ken Loach’s Cathy Come Home, a BBC drama filmed like a documentary, which explored the impact of Britain’s housing shortage in the late 1960s. In 2000, a British Film Institute poll of 100 industry figures rated it as the second-best British television programme ever made, after Fawlty Towers.

Ray Brooks, British actor and voice of Mr Benn, dies aged 86 | Television | The Guardian

[Happy As Larry]

Here’s one she made earlier! Biddy Baxter, the TV genius who made Blue Peter matter

Baxter was the sharp – if tough – TV brain behind the beloved children’s show’s most celebrated parts, from the studio pets to the coveted badges

As a child in Leicestershire in the 1940s, Biddy Baxter was a devoted reader of the work of Enid Blyton. She sent the creator of Noddy and The Famous Five a fan letter and was so delighted to receive an answer that she replied with follow-up questions. To her dismay, the response was identical to the first.

This sense of being let down by an adulated adult proved formative. When Baxter, who has died aged 92, was in charge of Blue Peter, the long-running children’s show that she essentially created, she introduced an alphabetical card index – that most efficient pre-digital database – to ensure that viewers received personalised replies.

That innovation reflected the gentle side of her professional persona. Some presenters on the show complained of a darker side – domineering, dictatorial – but, if true, that editorial insistence reflected the extraordinary extent to which she was Blue Peter and Blue Peter was her.
It has been rare in the history of broadcasting for one person to mould and own a programme for so long. For 26 years (23 of them as editor) at Blue Peter, she was keeper of the flame and anyone seen as threatening its glow – staff, senior management, TV critics – was at risk of being burned.

Baxter’s forcefulness may also have reflected the tactics required of a relatively rare powerful woman at the BBC in her time. The corporation was initially less male than many vintage British institutions – Lord Reith, the first director general, appointed three female heads of department in the 1920s – but the balance had shifted by the time Baxter joined in 1955. (As late as 1985, an internal report found that the male-female balance in senior positions was 159 to six.) Tellingly, when Baxter informed the careers department at Durham University that she sought a BBC career, she was steered towards secretarial or receptionist posts rather than the production jobs she envisaged.

First employed as a studio manager in radio, she soon graduated to producing before, in 1962, being given a temporary transfer to TV due to a staffing crisis. (Something similar happened to David Attenborough, underlining the extent to which TV, in its early decades, was an accidental, undervalued medium.) When Baxter was given a permanent Blue Peter contract in November 1962, the programme (created by John Hunter Blair) had been running for four years. She made it into one of the most distinctive and significant broadcast brands, changing her own life and those of tens of millions of British children across many generations.

Baxter introduced or popularised all the most celebrated elements – the Blue Peter badge for viewer achievement; the pets (most notably, the mongrel Petra and the border collie Shep); the presenters’ summer holiday to film reports in a foreign location; and the “makes”, in which a doll’s house or a fort was created from everyday family refuse such as cereal packets and washing-up liquid bottles.

As a perfectionist, Baxter was irritated that the most attention resulted from things going wrong – a girl guides’ campfire threatening to burn down the studio, or Lulu the baby elephant copiously urinating and defecating before treading on the foot of the presenter John Noakes and dragging her zoo keeper through the mess.

Although from a generation raised on the wireless, Baxter (like Attenborough) had an instinctive understanding of how television could and should work. The catchphrase associated with the makes, “Here’s one I made earlier,” as the presenter pulled a complete model from under the table, was a practical solution to the time constraints of a 15-minute programme (later lengthened to 25 minutes) now routinely used by craft and cookery shows. Another link phrase, “And now for something completely different” (later satirised by Monty Python), originated in the sudden jumps of subject that were a feature of the series.

Baxter’s reputation inside and outside the BBC for tetchiness partly resulted from her fierce defence of Blue Peter’s legacy. Baxter was infuriated by claims that there had been two Petras (the second substituted when the first one died) and that she had sacked the presenter Christopher Trace in 1967 for getting divorced and Michael Sundin in 1985 for being gay. Baxter always insisted that the two hosts were shown the door for being difficult with the crew or unpopular with viewers, and that before Petra an unnamed puppy had died of distemper.

The concept of the presenters being a big brother or sister to the viewers (the target age was six to 14) meant they were replaced as they aged. By 1988 it seemed anomalous to some that a 55-year-old was editing the leading BBC children’s show and it was perhaps convenient to both sides that Baxter resigned when her husband, the musical educationist John Hosier, took a job in Hong Kong. However, on returning to the UK she was tapped as an adviser to director generals for her sharp TV brain. The increasing marginalisation of Blue Peter due to technological trends – it is now screened weekly on a niche channel – was painful to her in later life.

Strikingly, at a time when TV was considered disposable even within the industry – few shows were archived due to the cost and space of doing so – Baxter understood the significance of what she was doing, insisting on every show from the mid-60s onward being recorded. It was a declaration that Blue Peter mattered and, largely thanks to her, it did.

Here’s one she made earlier! Biddy Baxter, the TV genius who made Blue Peter matter | Blue Peter | The Guardian

[david44]

She came to our school about 1964-5 with vera gray for a bbc radio show , music movement and mime, all lovely silly stuff for those in short trousers RIP

[klong toey]

I hope her coffin is made from tissue paper and toilet rolls.
RIP.

[Neverna]

I hope her coffin is made from tissue paper and toilet rolls.
RIP.

And sticky backed plastic.

[Happy As Larry]

Bobby Whitlock obituary
Rock musician who formed the band Derek and the Dominos with Eric Clapton and also worked with George Harrison

In a career that found him collaborating with some of the most illustrious musicians of his era, including George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs, Dr John and Stephen Stills, it was his work with Eric Clapton that rubber-stamped Bobby Whitlock’s place in rock’n’roll history. In particular, he will be remembered for his writing and playing contributions to the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970), often considered Clapton’s finest achievement.

Clapton first came across Whitlock, a keyboard player and singer, who has died of cancer aged 77, when he was a member of the rock-soul act Delaney & Bonnie and Friends (formed by the married couple Bonnie and Delaney Bramlett). Clapton liked them so much that he recruited them as the opening act for his band Blind Faith on their sole tour in 1969, and they would also appear on Clapton’s first solo album, Eric Clapton (1970). The live album On Tour with Eric Clapton (1970) cracked the US Top 30 and was Delaney & Bonnie’s most successful release.

Whitlock quit the Delaney & Bonnie band after recording their album To Bonnie from Delaney (1970), and hooked up with Clapton in England. Along with two further Delaney & Bonnie alumni, the bassist Carl Radle and the drummer Jim Gordon, the foursome became Derek and the Dominos, a name designed to give Clapton a measure of anonymity after his “supergroup” excesses with Cream and Blind Faith. As Whitlock put it to the Best Classic Bands website: “He wanted to be Derek, not Eric. He wasn’t ready to step into his role as a solo artist at that time.”

The Layla double album (recorded at Criteria studios in Miami) was a pivotal release in Clapton’s history. It reached only No 16 on the US chart and did not chart at all in Britain, but its reputation grew steadily over succeeding decades. It was a momentous feat for Whitlock too, since he co-wrote six of the album’s songs with Clapton, including Bell Bottom Blues, Anyday, Tell the Truth and Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad?, and played acoustic guitar and sang on his solo composition Thorn Tree in the Garden.
This was a feverishly creative period, since the Dominos band came together while all four members were simultaneously involved in recording Harrison’s triple album All Things Must Pass, his first solo effort since the demise of the Beatles. When Harrison took a break from the sessions, he invited the foursome to use the studio, which enabled the Dominos to record their first single, Tell the Truth, with Roll It Over (another Clapton/Whitlock composition) for the B side. Intriguingly, while Clapton was inspired to write Layla’s title song by his infatuation with Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, Whitlock dated Pattie’s sister, Paula, while he was in Britain. Whitlock later sold his rights to royalties from Derek and the Dominos, but Clapton and his management helped him to get them back.

Bobby was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to James Whitlock and his wife, Ruby, and grew up in the city’s Millington district. James was a Baptist preacher renowned for his fiery oratory, traces of which could be discerned in his son’s singing. Bobby also first played the piano in his father’s church. As a teenager, Bobby could frequently be found at Memphis’s renowned Stax Records, where he got to know many of the local artists, including Booker T & the MGs, Albert King and Sam & Dave. He added handclaps to Sam & Dave’s 1968 classic I Thank You. “It was a great time and town for music then, especially soul music,” he recalled. “It was loose and all about music everywhere that you turned.”

As a professional musician Whitlock cut his teeth playing keyboards in the local bands the Short Cuts and the Counts, and Stax planned to record an album with him on its subsidiary label, Hip Records, making him the first white artist signed to Stax. However, Whitlock felt that they were trying to turn him into a lightweight pop artist – “It turned out to be bubblegum garbage music that they recorded with me” – so he was delighted to be recruited by the Bramletts instead. He travelled to Los Angeles to join them, and as he recalled it: “We started Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, just Delaney and Bonnie and myself.”

Whitlock asserted that Derek and the Dominos were “the very best band on the planet … We were better than anybody,” but their progress was cut short by a surfeit of drugs and alcohol. The rock critic Robert Palmer described how he visited the Layla recording sessions in Miami and found that “there was a lot of dope around, especially heroin, and when I showed up, everyone was just spread out on the carpet, nodded out.”

The Dominos split in 1971 after an abortive attempt to record a second album, though all the band members as well as the Bramletts and Harrison appeared on Whitlock’s debut solo album, Bobby Whitlock (1972). Reflecting on the Dominos in the Houston Press, Whitlock commented that “I am very happy that the one studio record was the ‘one’ and that was it. It never will have anything other than itself to be compared to.”

He would release three more solo albums during the 70s, while his other musical activities included adding vocals to Dr John’s album The Sun, Moon & Herbs (1971) and an appearance on the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street (1972). For the latter, Whitlock claimed he had co-written the track I Just Want to See His Face, but was not given a songwriting credit. In 1973 he played organ on Down the Road, the second album by Stephen Stills’s band Manassas, but found himself deprived of a songwriting credit for the track City Junkies, which was based on a jam between Whitlock and the drummer Dallas Taylor.

During the 80s and 90s, Whitlock largely retired from music and retreated to a farm in Mississippi. He made a musical comeback in 1999 with the album It’s About Time. On Christmas Eve 2005 he married CoCo Carmel, a musician who had been married to Delaney Bramlett from 1987 to 2000, and the pair of them recorded several albums and made regular live appearances. From 2006 to 2021 they lived in Austin, then moved to Ozona, Texas. In recent years he became a keen painter, and frequently had his work displayed in galleries.

In 2010 he published a memoir, Bobby Whitlock: A Rock’n’Roll Autobiography, co-authored with Marc Roberty and with a foreword by Clapton. In May 2024 he was awarded a brass note on the Beale Street Walk of Fame in Memphis, an event he commemorated with a new song, Walking on Beale Street.

He is survived by CoCo, his children Ashley, Beau and Tim, and his sister, Debbie.

Robert Stanley Whitlock, musician, singer and songwriter, born 18 March 1948; died 10 August 2025

Bobby Whitlock obituary | Pop and rock | The Guardian

[Happy As Larry]

Terence Stamp, star of Superman films, dies at 87
Family says Valkyrie and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert actor ‘leaves behind an extraordinary body of work’

Terence Stamp, who made his name as an actor in 1960s London and went on to play the arch-villain General Zod in the Hollywood hits Superman and Superman II, has died aged 87, his family said on Sunday.
The Oscar-nominated actor starred in films ranging from Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem in 1968 and A Season in Hell in 1971 to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert in 1994 in which he played a transgender woman.

The family told Reuters that Stamp died on Sunday morning. “He leaves behind an extraordinary body of work, both as an actor and as a writer that will continue to touch and inspire people for years to come,” the family said. “We ask for privacy at this sad time.”

Born in London’s East End in 1938, the son of a tugboat stoker, he endured the bombing of the city during the second world war before leaving school to work initially in advertising, eventually winning a scholarship to go to drama school.
Famous for his good looks and impeccable dress sense, he formed one of Britain’s most glamorous couples with Julie Christie, with whom he starred in Far from the Madding Crowd in 1967. He also dated the model Jean Shrimpton and was chosen as a muse by the photographer David Bailey.

After failing to land the role of James Bond to succeed Sean Connery, he appeared in Italian films and worked with Federico Fellini in the late 1960s.
He dropped out of the limelight and studied yoga in India before landing his most high-profile role as General Zod, the megalomaniacal leader of the Kryptonians, in Superman in 1978 and its sequel in 1980.

He went on to appear in a string of other films, including Valkyrie with Tom Cruise in 2008, The Adjustment Bureau with Matt Damon in 2011 and movies directed by Tim Burton.
Terence Stamp, star of Superman films, dies at 87 | Terence Stamp | The Guardian

[harrybarracuda]

Judge Frank Caprio, famed for his empathy and compassion, dies at 88.

Frank Caprio, TV's most compassionate judge, dies at 88 - VnExpress International

[aging one]

A sad day. The former mod and poster from here Natalie8 passed this morning. The breast cancer she fought so hard 7-9 years ago returned super aggressive. Her mom was here with her when she passed. She had been in palliative care for the last month. Getting tired of aging and losing friends.

[Edmond]

The former mod and poster from here Natalie8 passed this morning

A good one.

The original 'Nazi Troll Hunter', as she called herself when modded up.

Always had good, happy, positive vibes about living here. She had some good stories, inc one about meeting her Thai husband after walking into a classroom to teach a bunch of male air force guys.

[cyrille]

RiP.

It must be tough to lose your kid.

[david44]

RiP.

It must be tough to lose your kid.

Agree entirely it seems so against nature that theo lder generation outlive their offspring.

[Happy As Larry]

Jerry Adler, actor in The Sopranos and The Good Wife, dies aged 96

Adler was involved behind the scenes of storied Broadway productions before finding acting success in his 60s

Jerry Adler, who spent decades behind the scenes of storied Broadway productions before pivoting to acting in his 60s, has died aged 96.
Adler died on Saturday, according to a brief family announcement confirmed by the Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York. Adler “passed peacefully in his sleep”, Paradigm Talent Agency’s Sarah Shulman said on behalf of his family. No immediate cause was given.

Among Adler’s acting credits are The Sopranos, on which he played Tony Soprano adviser Hesh Rabkin across all six seasons, and The Good Wife, where he played law partner Howard Lyman. But before Adler had ever stepped in front of a film or television camera, he had 53 Broadway productions to his name – all behind the scenes, serving as a stage manager, producer or director.

He hailed from an entertainment family with deep roots in Jewish and Yiddish theater, as he told the Jewish Ledger in 2014. His father, Philip Adler, was a general manager for the famed Group Theatre and Broadway productions, and his cousin Stella Adler was a legendary acting teacher.

“I’m a creature of nepotism,” Adler told TheaterMania in 2015. “I got my first job when I was at Syracuse University and my father, the general manager of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, called me [because] there was an opening for an assistant stage manager. I skipped school.”

After a long theater career, which included the original production of My Fair Lady and working with the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Julie Andrews and Richard Burton, among many others, Adler left Broadway during its 1980s slump. He moved to California, where he worked on television productions such as the soap opera Santa Barbara.

“I was really getting into the twilight of a mediocre career,” he told the New York Times in 1992.
But the retirement he was contemplating was staved off when Donna Isaacson, the casting director for The Public Eye and a longtime friend of one of Adler’s daughters, had a hunch about how to cast a hard-to-fill role, as the New York Times reported then. Adler had been on the other side of auditions, and, curious to experience how actors felt, agreed to try out. Director Howard Franklin, who auditioned dozens of actors for the role of a newspaper columnist in the Joe Pesci-starring film, had “chills” when Adler read for the part, the newspaper reported.

So began an acting career that had him working consistently in front of the camera for more than 30 years. An early role on the David Chase-written Northern Exposure paved the way for his time on a future Chase project, The Sopranos.
“When David was going to do the pilot for The Sopranos he called and asked me if I would do a cameo of Hesh. It was just supposed to be a one-shot,” he told Forward in 2015. “But when they picked up the show they liked the character, and I would come on every fourth week.”

Films included Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery, but Adler was perhaps best known for his television work. Those credits included stints on Rescue Me, Mad About You, Transparent and guest spots on shows ranging from The West Wing to Broad City.

He even returned to Broadway, this time onstage, in Elaine May’s Taller Than a Dwarf in 2000. In 2015, he appeared in Larry David’s writing and acting stage debut, Fish in the Dark.
“I do it because I really enjoy it. I think retirement is a road to nowhere,” Adler told Forward, on the subject of the play. “I wouldn’t know what to do if I were retired. I guess if nobody calls anymore, that’s when I’ll be retired. Meanwhile this is great.”
Adler published a memoir, Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television, and the Movies, last year. “I’m ready to go at a moment’s notice,” he told CT Insider then, when asked if he’d take more acting roles. In recent years, he and his wife, Joan Laxman, relocated from Connecticut back to his hometown of New York. Survivors include his four daughters, Shulman said.

For Adler, who once thought he was “too goofy-looking” to act, seeing himself on screen was odd, at least initially. And in multiple interviews with various outlets, he expressed how strange it was to be recognized by the public after spending so many years working behind the scenes. There was at least one advantage to being preserved on film, though, as he told the New York Times back in 1992.

“I’m immortal,” he said.

Jerry Adler, actor in The Sopranos and The Good Wife, dies aged 96 | US news | The Guardian

[harrybarracuda]

Good innings.

[harrybarracuda]

Graham Greene, Oscar-nominated actor from 'Dances with Wolves,' dies at 73



Graham Greene, the Oscar-nominated actor, has died, according to multiple reports.

He was 73 years old. Greene died at a hospital in Toronto, Canada, on Sunday afternoon, TMZ reported.

Greene was born on June 22, 1952, in Ohsweken, on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario, Canada, according to the TV Guide website.

Greene made his acting debut in 1979 in a Canadian series drama called "The Great Detective" and made several appearances in films and other TV series throughout the 80s and 90s.

He made his big break into Hollywood with his iconic role in "Dances with Wolves" in 1990, starring alongside Kevin Costner (Lieutenant Dunbar) and Mary McDonnell.

Greene went on to appear in other popular movies such as "Maverick," "Die Hard with a Vengeance," "The Green Mile," and "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," according to IMDB.

He is survived by his wife, Hilary Blackmore, and his daughter and grandson.

Graham Greene, Oscar-nominated actor from '''Dances with Wolves,''' dies at 73: Reports | FOX 32 Chicago

[Happy As Larry]

Giorgio Armani, celebrated Italian fashion designer, dies at 91

His company announced death of designer synonymous with modern Italian style and elegance on Thursday
Giorgio Armani, the celebrated Italian fashion designer who built a global empire has died, his company said on Thursday. He was 91.

“With infinite sorrow, the Armani Group announces the passing of its creator, founder and tireless driving force: Giorgio Armani,” the fashion house said in a statement.

His vast portfolio included the Giorgio Armani and Emporio Armani apparel lines alongside the haute couture label Armani Privé and an Armani Casa design and interiors line.
He was absent from his last three shows, held in June and July, owing to illness. He had been expected to attend the brand’s 50th anniversary celebrations later this month including a landmark exhibition at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan.

The founder and sole shareholder of Giorgio Armani SpA, Armani reportedly refused numerous offers throughout his career to become part of one of the big four luxury fashion conglomerates. He described the independence of his brand as “an essential value”.

His inaugural 1975 presentation pioneered the idea of soft power dressing, earning him the title “King of the Blazer”. His proposition of fluid rather than structured suiting featuring longer-cut suit jackets, loosely pleated trousers and floor-sweeping belted coats formed an entirely new approach to dressing. He applied the same techniques to womenswear, freeing many from the fussy and figure-hugging silhouettes prescribed by other brands. His muted colour palette of greys and beige became synonymous with stealth wealth, long before the idea of quiet luxury entered the lexicon.

In 1980 the brand was catapulted to international fame when Richard Gere wore numerous pieces designed by Armani in the film American Gigolo.
This also pioneered a new way of working with Hollywood. While in the past couturiers had a relationship with one such specific star, such as Hubert de Givenchy and Audrey Hepburn, Armani had multiple.
In 1978, Diane Keaton became the first actor to wear Armani on the Oscars red carpet. Jodie Foster has worn it to every ceremony but one since 1989, while Julia Roberts’ 1990 look of a steel grey oversized Armani suit teamed with a white shirt and tie has become one of the most memorable Golden Globes looks of all time.

Born in Piacenza in northern Italy in 1934, Armani originally pursued a career in medicine. He left the University of Milan before completing his degree to join the army. Shortly afterwards he began looking for a different type of career.
“I got into fashion almost by accident and then it slowly grew in me until it completely absorbed me, stealing my life away,” he previously said.

After working as a window dresser and later a sales associate at La Rinascente, a notable department store in Milan, he took on a menswear design role at Nino Cerruti.

Armani was 41 when he launched his own label. It was his partner Sergio Galeotti, an architect by training who convinced him to sell his Volkswagen Beetle to fund his own company. Galeotti ran the books while Armani focused on the creative side. When Galeotti died in 1995, Armani continued alone.

Armani-branded products generated £3.5bn in 2021. They included a collection of hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, cosmetics, chocolates and even floristry.
Armani liked to keep the business within the family.

After his spring/summer 2022 collection, Armani for the first time took his bow alongside Leo Dell’Orco, the head of the men’s style office, who originally joined the company in 1977.
When asked in a 2022 interview how he’d liked to be remembered, Armani replied: “As a sincere man. I say what I mean.”

Giorgio Armani, celebrated Italian fashion designer, dies at 91 | Fashion | The Guardian

[harrybarracuda]

The Duchess of Kent has died at the age of 92, Buckingham Palace has said.

Katharine - who became the oldest living member of the Royal Family when Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022 - was known for consoling Wimbledon finalists, notably a tearful Jana Novotna in 1993.

She dropped her HRH style, preferring to be known as Mrs Kent, and retreated from royal life to spend more than a decade teaching music at a primary school in Hull.

The palace said in a statement on Friday: "It is with deep sorrow that Buckingham Palace announces the death of Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent.

"Her Royal Highness passed away peacefully last night at Kensington Palace, surrounded by her family.

"The King and Queen and all Members of The Royal Family join The Duke of Kent, his children and grandchildren in mourning their loss and remembering fondly The Duchess's life-long devotion to all the organisations with which she was associated, her passion for music and her empathy for young people."

The Union Flag at Buckingham Palace was lowered to half-mast as a mark of respect shortly after the duchess's death was announced. A formal framed announcement will be displayed on the palace railings.

Katharine, Duchess of Kent, dies aged 92 | UK News | Sky News

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Rick Davies, Supertramp cofounder and vocalist, dies at 81


Rick Davies, the influential cofounder, vocalist, and keyboard player of the English rock band Supertramp, died on Sept. 5 at the age of 81.


A representative for the band confirmed Davies' death to Variety on Sunday, noting the singer-songwriter died at his home on New York's Long Island after a long battle with multiple myeloma.


Supertramp is one of the most dynamic and original bands to rise out of the U.K. after the Beatles and the Rolling Stones took over the world. Davies' idiosyncratic songwriting combined with cofounder and singer Roger Hodgson's distinctive voice made for several bestselling albums, chart-topping singles, and a legacy that sees Supertramp songs used widely in film, television, and beyond.


Davies was born in Swindon, England, in 1944 to a hairdresser and merchant navy seaman. His passion for music was kindled at a young age, and as soon as he could leave the house, he was performing live, joining his first band (Vince and the Vigilantes) in 1959 and forming his own for the first time in 1962 (Rick's Blues).


It wasn't until 1969, when Davies was 25, that he put out a call for a collaborator that altered the course of his life. Roger Hodgson, a posh young guitarist whose post-private school rearing clashed with Davies' own humble origins, wound up gelling with Davies, and Supertramp was born — after a few months under the moniker of Daddy.


Though Hodgson took the lead on most songs on Supertramp's freshman effort, 1970's self-titled album, Davies began to sing more and more, eventually writing and providing the voice for some of the band's most indelible hits, like "Bloody Well Right" and "Goodbye Stranger."


While other members came and went, Davies and Hodgson remained the band's core and key creative ingredients for over a decade. In that time, the band broke through to commercial success with the singles "Dreams" and "Bloody Well Right" off the 1974 album Crime of the Century, and 1977's In the Quietest Moments included the hit "Give a Little Bit."


In 1979, Breakfast in America spawned the chart-topping hits "The Logical Song," "Goodbye Stranger," and "Take the Long Way Home." Breakfast in America led to Supertramp winning two Grammy awards and became their bestselling album, reaching 4x Platinum certification.


Creative differences led to a bitter falling out between Davies and Hodgson, who left the band in 1983. Assorted legal disputes plagued the once fruitful creative partnership, sinking them into litigation that lasted decades, to as recently as April when a U.S. judge ordered Hodgson to give three other members of the band songwriting royalties on three songs.


Davies remained the band's anchor in the decades between, releasing four albums subsequent to Hodgson's exit and continuing to perform the band's music live in a variety of settings. Though Davies planned to reunite the band for a tour in 2015, it was canceled when the musician was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of cancer that attacks plasma cells.


Davies leaves behind his wife Sue, whom he married in 1977. In 1984, Sue stepped up to serve as their band manager, a position she's held onto ever since.


Rick Davies dead: the Supertramp cofounder and vocalist was 81