The RIP Famous Person Thread

[misskit]

Dick Clark looked young for the longest time. I thought he might be around forever.

Good bye, Dick Clark.

[Humbert]

Enjoyed American Bandstand after school (dating myself here) everyday

Same here. Good memories. RIP Dick.

[Looper]

The Victorian Homicide Squad is investigating the death of a key member of Australian rock band Men At Work.

Greg Ham, 58, was the band's flautist, saxophonist and keyboard player.
His body was found in a house in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton North when friends went to check on him late this morning.

About a dozen officers including forensic specialists were called to the Canning Street address early this afternoon.

Detective Senior Sergeant Shane O'Connell says the cause of death is still to be determined.

"There are a number of unexplained aspects to it which has caused our attendance here today, and we're assisting the local detectives to determine what has occurred," he told reporters.

"At this point in time, because of the early stages of our investigation, we're not prepared to go into the exact details of what has occurred."
Ham joined Men At Work in 1979 as a replacement for Greg Sneddon.

The band achieved international success in the early 1980s with Who Can It Be Now and Down Under, which included a distinctive flute riff.

[HermantheGerman]

RIP

[Humbert]

Levon Helm of The Band died of throat cancer at age 71. RIP, take a load off Levon.

[Fuzzy Bob]

Levon Helm, legendary drummer for 'The Band,' dies on April 19th after a long battle with cancer. WSJ rock and pop critic Jim Fusilli remembers the musician who began his career playing with Bob Dylan and ended it with multiple Grammy wins.

BBC News - The Band's Levon Helm dies at 71


Levon Helm, singer and drummer for rock group The Band, has died of cancer at the age of 71.
The folk-rock musician died at a hospital in New York City surrounded by family, friends and band mates, said manager Barbara O'Brien in a statement.
His family said on Tuesday that Helm was in the final stages of his battle with throat cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 1998.
The Band debuted in 1968 with the album Music From the Big Pink.
They reached the height of their popularity in the 1970s, and had several big hits, including Rag Mama Rag and The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

Helm's southern-inflected singing style carried the vocals on several Band songs, including The Weight.
Their last live performance was filmed by Martin Scorsese in 1976 for the film The Last Waltz.
The Band briefly reunited in the 1980s, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.
"He passed away peacefully at 1:30 this afternoon surrounded by his friends and bandmates," longtime friend and guitarist Larry Campbell told Rolling Stone.
"All his friends were there, and it seemed like Levon was waiting for them. Ten minutes after they left we sat there and he just faded away. He did it with dignity."
Helm also toured with Ringo Starr's All Starr Band in the 1980s and won multiple Grammy awards in recent years, including one in 2011 for a live recording in Nashville, Tennessee.
Born on 26 May 1940 in Arkansas, Helm's distinctive singing style and drumming skills helped drive the rock band to popularity at a time when many were moving towards a more psychedelic style.
The Band backed Bob Dylan during his electric tours in the mid-1960s and collaborated with him on another album, The Basement Tapes.

[Cujo]

We're all getting old and dying.

[Fuzzy Bob]

BBC News - Influential guitarist Bert Weedon dies

Influential guitarist Bert Weedon dies



Bert Weedon is credited with helping some of the best-known guitar stars learn the instrument
Influential guitarist Bert Weedon, best known for creating the popular tutorial manual Play In A Day, has died aged 91.
Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney and Brian May are among the stars who learned to play guitar from his books.
Born in east London, in May 1920, he had been ill for some time and died at his home in Beaconsfield, his friend John Adrian said.
He was awarded an OBE in the 2001 Queen's Birthday Honours List for his services to Music.
Aged 12, Weedon picked up his first guitar after convincing his father to buy him a second-hand one from a London market.
As a child, he studied classical guitar - a grounding which later enabled him to play any genre of guitar music at sight.
He began his career in showbusiness working with Ted Heath, Mantovani and The Squadronnaires, before becoming a featured soloist with the BBC Show Band show.
As a solo guitarist, he created many hits, including Guitar Boogie Shuffle, Apache and Nashville Boogie. In 1976 he became the first solo guitar player to top the Official Top 40 Album charts with 22 Golden Guitar Greats.
He was later in great demand with stars such as Sir Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele.
Weedon also accompanied artists such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Nat King Cole and Judy Garland.

[Mr Lick]

Bert, a great innings my friend. Always to be remembered i'm sure especially by some of my pals in the UK who bought many of your guitar lesson books when we were growing up in the 60's.

R.I.P. The nation owes you.

[harrybarracuda]

[billy the kid]

used to listen to the wolfman jack when i lived in munich in the 70's.
bought bert weedon's guitar lessons book. he was a god for many.

[Tom Sawyer]

Dick Clark looked young for the longest time. I thought he might be around forever.

Good bye, Dick Clark.

I remember he was nicknamed 'the world's oldest living teenager' - no more. So long Dick.

[Humbert]

RIP Chris Ethridge, bassist for the Flying Burrito Brothers. Dead at 65 from pancreatic cancer. A bad week for rock and roll legends.

[Eliminator]

^ Until I listened to the song, I didn't know who they were. RIP to all the guys of Rock & Roll that have been popping off lately. I'm just hoping I make it WAY past them. Of course I never did as much drugs as most of these guys. No where near as they had more money than I had. 555

[Humbert]

^Both Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons from The Flying Burrito Brothers were formerly with The Byrds.

[Mr Lick]

Olympic boxing legend Terry Spinks dies


Terry Spinks, who won boxing gold at the 1956 Olympics at the age of only 18, has died at the age of 74.

East Londoner Spinks, the youngest Briton to win an Olympic boxing gold medal, died at his Essex home after a long illness.

The baby-faced Spinks, who was an apprentice jockey before concentrating on boxing, won flyweight gold in Melbourne having been a late replacement.

Spinks, who clinched the British featherweight crown as a professional, won 41 of his 49 professional fights and was awarded an MBE in 2002.

“With less than 100 days to go before the Games it's very sad that one of the East End's favourite sons won't be around to see celebrations in his own neighbourhood ” - BBC boxing commentator Mike Costello

The son of a West Ham bookmaker, Spinks, who remains the only boxer to be schoolboy, ABA, British and Olympic champion, started boxing at the age of nine with the West Ham Amateur Boxing Club, which later produced two-weight world champion Nigel Benn and British super-featherweight champion Kevin Mitchell.

He was working as a binman when the call came to join Great Britain's Olympic team and only had a week to prepare before leaving for Australia.

[harrybarracuda]

One of the most recognisable riffs in popular music....

2 May 2012 Last updated at 10:56 GMT

Shaft guitarist Charles 'Skip' Pitts dies at 65



Pitts is survived by his wife Beverly

US soul and blues guitarist Charles 'Skip' Pitts has died in a Memphis hospital at the age of 65. The musician was best known for his distinctive "wah-wah" guitar pedal sound, memorably featured on Issac Hayes' theme for the 1971 film Shaft.
He joined Hayes' band in 1970 and remained a member until Hayes' death in 2008.
The Stax Museum of American Soul Music said the musician died on Tuesday and had been suffering from lung cancer.
Born in Washington DC, Pitts learned to play guitar when he was 11 years old, picking up tips from neighbour and fellow musician Bo Diddley.
By the age of 17 he performed on Gene Chandler's Rainbow '65 and went on to play with the Isley Brothers, Sam and Dave and Wilson Pickett.
It was his move to Memphis and his near 40-year collaboration with Hayes that earned him his fame.
Later in his career, Pitts made appearances in films including Samuel L Jackson movies Black Snake Moan and Soul Men, to which he also contributed soundtrack entries.
He also performed on the score for 2005 film Hustle and Flow.
Most recently he worked as a session musician for Stax Records and appeared on Al Green's I Can't Stop and Cyndi Lauper's Memphis Blues, both of which were nominated for Grammy awards.
He also released an album last autumn, entitled Got to Get Back!, with his band The Bo-Keys.
Scott Bomar, his Bo-Keys bandmate, told Memphis website The Commercial Appeal that Pitts' style was "very unique".
"He took a little bit of the Bo Diddley rhythm, the Northern soul of Curtis Mayfield and the Memphis sound of Steve Cropper and Reggie Young and somehow came up with his own thing, a style that no one had."

[Mr Lick]

Ska pioneer Lloyd Brevett dies



Lloyd Brevett helped create an identifiably Jamaican sound


Jamaican double bassist Lloyd Brevett, whose band The Skatalites pioneered ska music and paved the way for reggae, has died at the age of 80.

The Skatalites formed in 1964 and combined jazz, R&B and mento to create ska and take a Jamaican sound around the world for the first time.

Their songs included The Guns of Navarone and they backed acts including The Wailers and Prince Buster.

Brevett suffered a stroke in March, two weeks after his son was murdered.

Thirty two-year-old Okine was shot outside the family's home in Kingston hours after he had accepted a Jamaican music industry award on his father's behalf.

Spokeswoman and friend Maxine Stowe told the AP news agency: "He took his son's death as stoically as he could, but you knew it was devastating for him. He deteriorated rapidly after that."

Former Jamaican Prime Minister and one-time Skatalites tour manager PJ Patterson said it was "Brevett who quietly provided the mesmerising backbone to the Skatalites' sound".

"To say that Brevett was a creator of both ska and dub is not to use hyperbole," he said in a statement.

Bunny Wailer, a member of the original Wailers with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, told AP: "He was there from the beginning. All my bass lines from all my recordings have been attributed to bass lines from Lloyd Brevett."

[harrybarracuda]

Beastie Boy Hip-Hop Star Adam Yauch Dies


• View Image
Last Updated: 8:24PM 04/05/2012



Beastie Boys rapper Adam Yauch has died at the age of 47, the star's agent's office has confirmed to Sky News.

The hip-hop star had been battling a cancerous parotid gland since being diagnosed in 2009.
Publicists Nasty Little Man released this statement: "It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam "MCA" Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer."
On hearing the news stars of music, film and sport tweeted their tributes to the rapper and activist.
The band member underwent surgery and radiation treatment but his illness caused the group to cancel shows and delayed the release of its 2011 album, "Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2."
Mr Yauch was absent when the Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in April.
News of the star's death was reported by mentor Russell Simmons whose Def Jam label released the Beastie Boys' first album, "Licensed to Ill."
Yauch, also known as "MCA", co-founded the the Beastie Boys group with Mike "Mike D" Diamond and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz in 1979.
The Beastie Boys were initially dismissed as three white, middle-class beer-swilling frat boys following their 1986 debut album "License To Ill," which featured songs like "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!)".
But their follow-up, "Paul's Boutique," was acclaimed by critics and brought the Beasties credibility in the black hip-hop community.
They followed with albums "Check Your Head," "Ill Communication" and "Hello Nasty."

[Humbert]

Maurice Sendak, author of 'Where the Wild Things Are', died at age 83. He inspired me when I was a young illustrator back in the day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/books/maurice-sendak-childrens-author-dies-at-83.html?_r=1&%3Fsmid=FB-nytimes&WT.mc_id=AR-E-FB-SM-LIN-MSC-050812-NYT-NA&WT.mc_ev=click

[misskit]

Loved his book as a child, even though the wild things were frightening.

[harrybarracuda]

HAIRSTYLING PIONEER SASSOON DIES


Hairdresser Vidal Sassoon who has died at his home in Los Angeles, police said

Wednesday May 9,2012


Celebrity hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, whose 1960s wash-and-wear cuts freed women from endless teasing and hairspray, has died. He was 84.

Los Angeles police spokesman Kevin Maiberger says officers went to Sassoon's home and determined his death was due to natural causes. Sassoon's family was present.

The London-born Sassoon's creative, geometric cuts required little styling. They were an integral part of the look of Mary Quant, the superstar British fashion designer who popularized the miniskirt.

The easy-maintenance cuts also fit right in with the fledgling women's liberation movement.

Sassoon developed a popular line of shampoos and styling products bearing his name. His slogan was "If you don't look good, we don't look good."

[Moonraker]

I always thought Vidal Sassoon was just some kind of brand name, not an actual person.

[harrybarracuda]

No he was real, his best mate was Harmony Hairspray.

[peterpan]

- Carroll Shelby, designer of the Shelby Cobra and other sports cars that placed him in the pantheon of auto industry legends, has died at age 89, his company said on Friday.

He died on Thursday at Baylor Hospital in Dallas, according to the company, Carroll Shelby Licensing. The firm did not disclose the cause of death. A post on his Facebook page last month revealed he had been hospitalized for pneumonia.

Shelby was one of the few prominent designers to work with all three major American car companies, starting with Ford Motor Co in the 1960s. His last collaboration with Ford was on the 2013 Ford Shelby GT500.

Shelby's high-performance cars helped Detroit challenge the dominance of the Europeans in racing. Ralph Gilles, head of product design for Chrysler, said Shelby created cars that helped enthusiasts worldwide find "joy and self-actualization."

"My name is Carroll Shelby and performance is my business," Shelby said in an early commercial for the Cobra.

He was born in Leesburg, Texas, in 1923. He started racing cars in the 1950s, and in 1959 he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a marathon race held in France.

He was diagnosed with a serious heart condition in 1959 that forced him to quit racing. Shelby had a heart transplant in 1990 and a kidney transplant in 1996.

He drove one race with nitro-glycerine pills under his tongue to prevent against a heart attack. He complained that he would have won if not for the pills.

He soon turned his attention toward designing. He approached Lee Iacocca, who was then at Ford, about building a lightweight A.C. roadster with a Ford engine. That car became the Cobra, a name that Shelby said came to him in a dream.

In 1962, the Cobra was introduced at the New York Auto Show and Shelby's company began making the cars in California later that year. In 1964, Ford asked Shelby to develop a high-performance Mustang. That same year the song "Hey Little Cobra" by the Rip Chords embedded the sports car in pop culture.

"Whether helping Ford dominate the 1960s racing scene or building some of the most famous Mustangs, his enthusiasm and passion for great automobiles over six decades has truly inspired everyone who worked with him," said Edsel Ford II, grandson of the No. 2 U.S. automaker's founder Henry Ford.

He parted ways with Ford in the 1970s and headed to Chrysler, where he revamped the K car and worked on the initial design of the Dodge Viper. He also worked for General Motors Co's Oldsmobile division.

Shelby sued Ford in the 1990s over the use of the Cobra name. That suit was settled and by 2001, he was collaborating with the automaker again.

"From his personal influence on our Dodge GLH cars to his inspiration on the original Dodge Viper concept, we've lost a true automotive legend," said Gilles, who also leads Chrysler's performance brand, SRT, which unveiled the 2013 SRT Viper at the New York Auto Show this year.

Shelby is survived by three children six grandchildren, four great grandchildren and his wife, Cleo