The RIP Famous Person Thread

[Mr Lick]

Artist and 'inspiration' John Bellany dies at 71



John Bellany's life was explored in an interview on the BBC's Culture Show early in 2013


The artist John Bellany has died at the age of 71.

One of Scotland's best-known artists, he was born in the fishing community of Port Seton in East Lothian.

He trained at the Edinburgh College of Art and then in London. His works were exhibited and collected around the world.

After a period of ill health, he moved to Italy. His family said he died on Thursday evening, in his studio, with a paint brush in his hand.

Director-General of the National Galleries of Scotland Sir John Leighton said: "John Bellany will be celebrated as one of Scotland's greatest artists of the modern era. From his early, heroic depictions of fisherfolk on the Scottish coast to the vibrant, passionate images of his later years he gave visual form to the big themes and narratives of human life.

"The retrospective show at the National Galleries last autumn demonstrated how he was able to use the drama and crises of his own life as a starting point for powerful explorations of man's struggle with fate and, as he entered his seventies, it seemed as if he was still at the top of the game.

"We are extremely sad to hear of his death but his art will remain an inspiration to artists long in to the future."

[peterpan]

^Pitcairn is very beautiful, went there 20 yrs ago, only beaten by Lord Howe is, and Lord Howe has beaches, which Pitcairn does not, both places are beautiful but you need to make your own entertainment, if cows sauntering up the main street ain't your bag.

[xanax]

^ arn't several still in jail for shagging the kids?

[TizMe]

I went to Norfolk Island in 1986. No television, no phones, all night life finished at about 9pm....

Nice place to really relax and wind down.

[xanax]

I went to Norfolk Island in 1986. No television, no phones, all night life finished at about 9pm....

Nice place to really relax and wind down.

Sounds just like Laos today.

[harrybarracuda]

Cliff Morgan, rugby legend and Question of Sport star, dies at 83
Thursday 29 August 2013
Welsh rugby international and broadcaster Cliff Morgan has died aged 83, the Welsh Rugby Union has confirmed.



The sportsman, who grew up in a mining family in south Wales, played for Cardiff, Wales and the British Lions in an illustrious career.

His broadcasting career included a stint on Question of Sport and commentary duties on countless games including the Barbarians against New Zealand in 1973 when Gareth Edwards scored.

The try by his fellow Welshman was accompanied by Morgan's exultant: "This is Gareth Edwards, a dramatic start. What a score!"

Morgan suffered a stroke when he was 42 and recently coped with cancer of the vocal cords and removal of his larynx, which limited his ability to speak.

WRU president Dennis Gethin said: "I have lost a friend and we have all lost one of rugby's greats who was also a true gentleman.

"His exploits as a player for Cardiff, Wales, the Barbarians and the British and Irish Lions are legendary but he also achieved so much off the field of play.

"As a broadcaster he became one of the best known faces and voices of radio and television in the UK and as a producer and editorial executive he reached the top of his profession.

"Despite all that success, he remained a true gentleman throughout his life and always remained a true son of the Rhondda.

"He was rightly honoured during his life and he will definitely be remembered for all his contributions in so many fields of excellence."

Roger Lewis, group chief executive of the WRU, said:"Cliff Morgan epitomised the values of Welsh rugby and throughout his life remained a great ambassador for our sport and for Wales.

"He possessed remarkable ability as an outside half whose flair was rightly recognised with the top honours rugby has to offer with Wales and the British and Irish Lions.

"His face was known to millions because of his successful career and perhaps that famous voice of his will live on forever particularly when we recall his magnificent commentary of the Gareth Edwards try against New Zealand for the Barbarians in 1973."

[Mr Lick]

"His face was known to millions because of his successful career and perhaps that famous voice of his will live on forever particularly when we recall his magnificent commentary of the Gareth Edwards try against New Zealand for the Barbarians in 1973."

Sad to hear of the great man's demise, A joy to recall his commentary of that very special match.

[david44]

The bard of Castledawson signs off.

Death Of A Naturalist
All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst into nimble-
Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was
Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too
For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.
Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
To a coarse croaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.
I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

Seamus Heaney died today

[snakeeyes]

Seamus Heaney dead: World renowned poet dies aged 74 after short illness

Seamus Heaney dead: World renowned poet dies aged 74 after short illness - Mirror Online

This world renowned poetry first came to public attention in the mid-1960s with his first major collection, Death Of A Naturalist, published in 1966

World-renowned poet Seamus Heaney has died, his family have confirmed.

The Nobel Laureate, who was 74, had been in hospital after suffering a short illness, they said.

"The death has taken place of Seamus Heaney. The poet and Nobel Laureate died in hospital in Dublin this morning after a short illness," a statement on behalf of the family said.

"The family has requested privacy at this time."

Heaney is survived by his wife, Marie, and children, Christopher, Michael and Catherine Ann.

Funeral arrangements are to be announced later.

The Nobel prize-winner was born in April 1939, the eldest of nine children, on a small farm called Mossbawn near Bellaghy in Co Derry, Northern Ireland, and his upbringing often played out in the poetry he wrote in later years.

He was educated at St Columb's College, Derry, a Catholic boarding school, and later at Queen's University Belfast, before making his home in Dublin, with periods of teaching in the US.

Heaney was an honorary fellow at Trinity College Dublin and last year was bestowed with the Seamus Heaney Professorship in Irish Writing at the university, which he described as a great honour.

His world renowned poetry first came to public attention in the mid-1960s with his first major collection, Death Of A Naturalist, published in 1966.

As the Troubles took hold later that decade, his experiences were seen through the darkened mood of his work.

Ireland's Arts Minister, Jimmy Deenihan, praised Heaney for his work as a literary great but also for promoting Ireland.

"He was just a very humble, modest man. He was very accessible," he said.

"Anywhere I have ever travelled in the world and you mention poetry and literature and the name of Seamus Heaney comes up immediately."

Mr Deenihan recently joined Heaney at an event at the Irish Embassy in Paris where the poet gave readings to an audience of 1,000 invited guests.

"He was a huge figure internationally, a great ambassador for literature obviously, but also for Ireland," the minister said.

[snakeeyes]

[mao say dung]

Digging

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; snug as a gun.

Under my window, a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked,
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade.
Just like his old man.

My grandfather cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, going down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mould, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.

Seamus Heaney

[Bobcock]

Sir David Frost Goooooooonnnnneeee!!!!!

[harrybarracuda]

Last Updated: 12:13PM 01/09/2013
Veteran broadcaster Sir David Frost has died of a heart attack at the age of 74, his family said in a statement.
He died on Saturday night on the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, where he was due to give a speech.
A family statement said: "His family are devastated and ask for privacy at this difficult time. A family funeral will be held in the near future and details of a memorial service will be announced in due course."
Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "My heart goes out to David Frost's family. He could be - and certainly was with me - both a friend and a fearsome interviewer."
He added: "Sir David was an extraordinary man - with charm, wit, talent, intelligence and warmth in equal measure. He made a huge impact on television and politics.
"The Nixon interviews were among the great broadcast moments - but there were many other brilliant interviews."
The media personality, journalist and comedian mixed political satire programmes with serious big name interviews - the most notable of which was with Richard Nixon and provided the inspiration for an Oscar-nominated Hollywood movie.
During a career that spanned 50 years, he presented The Frost Report, Breakfast With Frost and That Was The Week That Was.
Paying tribute to the icon, television personality Esther Rantzen said: "I think fellow interviewers have always been awestruck by David Frost's capacity to illicit memorable, sometimes historically significant quotes from all the movers and shakers or our time - presidents, prime ministers, A list celebrities - but for all of us who had the pleasure of knowing him socially, it is his kindness, generosity, loyalty and humour that we will miss so much.
"His summer party was always the best party of the year. His fund of anecdotes and his constant wit was a joy. In fact, it was always his greeting: 'a joy to meet you' and it was always a joy to meet him."
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls tweeted: "Very sorry to hear of the sudden death of Sir David Frost - he was such a friendly man, but also a brilliantly beguiling interviewer."
Stephen Fry tweeted: "Oh heavens, David Frost dead? No!! I only spoke to him on Friday and he sounded so well. Excited about a house move, full of plans … how sad."

[daveboy]

One of The Frost Report's most enduring pieces was the "class sketch", featuring Cleese, Barker and Corbett.

[Tom Sawyer]

Frost was a true pro of a now bygone era. The era has been replaced by giggling idiots like Anderson Cooper and "embedded journalist" cheerleaders.

[david44]

Bye Bye good evening and welcome

Sir David Frost dies: Revered journalist and broadcaster suffers heart attack aged 74
Sir David is thought to have died from a suspected heart attack while aboard the Queen Elizabeth II cruise ship on Saturday night.

He will always be remebered for the Nixon interviews and TW3

[billy the kid]

not too late for Seamus Heaney.
as a kid i used to holiday at my grandfather's farm every year for 3 months.
A place called Maghera, just up the road from Bellaghy.
All farmers around there pretty much knew each other and i can remember
Heaney's name mentioned a few times but had no idea there was a poet in the family.
RIP.

[Mr Lick]

Broadcaster David Jacobs dies at 87



Jacobs won a Sony Gold Award for outstanding contribution to radio in 1984


Related Stories

• Obituary: David Jacobs
• David Jacobs steps down from Radio 2

Broadcaster and presenter David Jacobs, whose career spanned seven decades, has died at the age of 87, BBC announces

Jacobs, who stepped down from his Radio 2 programme last month due to ill health, died at home "surrounded by his family", the BBC said in a statement.

He started at the BBC in 1945, hosting shows including Housewives' Choice, Juke Box Jury and Any Questions.

BBC director general Tony Hall hailed him as "one of the great broadcast personalities".

"As a young and avid viewer of Jukebox Jury, I remember him every week scoring the hits and misses," he said.

"And I was still listening to him just last month as he fronted his show The David Jacobs Collection on Radio 2."

He added: "We shall all miss him tremendously."

Announcing in July that he was stepping down from his Radio 2 show, Jacobs said:

"Over the past two years Radio 2 has given me time to be treated for liver cancer and Parkinson's Disease."

Jacobs started his broadcasting career in the Royal Navy in 1944, where he was made an announcer on wartime radio station Radio SEAC.

After leaving the Navy, he began working at the BBC as an announcer and newsreader.

In 1964, he became one of the original Top of the Pops presenters and he also worked as the BBC's Eurovision Song Contest commentator before he was succeeded by Terry Wogan.

He won a Sony Gold Award for outstanding contribution to radio in 1984 and was admitted to the Sony Hall of Fame in 1995

[david44]

Jacob's cream crackered,an ebullient character with a cheerful demeanour which would benefit some of our bretheren

RIP

[harrybarracuda]

Leaving the world at a young age, it was reported that "Rocky V" actor Tommy Morrison died on Sunday (September 1).

According to TMZ, the heavyweight champion passed away at a Nebraska hospital with his wife by his side. He was 44.

Although the exact cause of death has not been announced, Morrison's rep did confirm that he had been in and out of the hospital for the past several months.

Back in 1996, the Oklahoma native tested positive for HIV but he later declared that the test was false.

[harrybarracuda]

Juke Box Jury presenter David Jacobs dies aged 87



Household name: broadcaster David Jacobs

Published: 03 September 2013 Updated: 07:39, 03 September 2013
Tributes have been paid to broadcaster David Jacobs, who has died aged 87 after battles with Parkinson's disease and liver cancer .

Jacobs became a household name with his relaxed presentation of such peak-time radio and TV programmes as Juke Box Jury and Pick Of The Pops, What's My Line? and Any Questions?

He stepped down from his weekly Radio 2 programme last month because of ill health.

A BBC spokesman said Jacobs died peacefully at home, surrounded by his family.

Bob Shennan, controller of BBC Radio 2, 6 Music, Asian Network and popular music, said: "David was a legend in broadcasting, not only for the Radio 2 audience, but for the whole population. He was a true giant of the BBC, whose career spanned seven decades on radio and television.

"His broadcast hallmarks were great taste, authority and warmth. I am sure his audience will feel they have lost a friend, as we all do here at Radio 2."

Helen Boaden, controller of BBC Radio, said: "From Jukebox Jury to Melodies For You on Radio 2, David's effortless presenting style belied his consummate professionalism."

Tony Hall, director general of the BBC, said: "I'm very sad indeed to hear the news about David.

"As a young and avid viewer of Juke Box Jury, I remember him every week scoring the hits and misses. And I was still listening to him just last month as he fronted his show The David Jacobs Collection on Radio 2.

"He was one of the great broadcast personalities, and we shall all miss him tremendously."

Disc jockey Tony Blackburn said on Twitter: "Very sad to hear that David Jacobs has passed away, another great broadcaster no longer with us. I'm proud to have known him. RIP David."

TV and radio personality Zoe Ball tweeted: "Dear David Jacobs has passed away. One of my all time favourite broadcasters. ThankYouForTheMusic RIP dear chap."

Music presenter Bob Harris told followers: "So very sad to hear the news about David Jacobs, my friend and mentor. He gave me my first-ever mention on the radio on my 15th birthday."

It was announced in July that Jacobs would step down from his Radio 2 show, which he had hosted for 16 years, after a final edition on August 4.

Jacobs's life was tinged with tragedy. His only son, Jeremy, was killed in an accident in Israel at the age of 19. And two years later his second wife, Caroline, was killed in a road accident in Spain, carrying their unborn child, only weeks after their marriage.

But he was a self-proclaimed "huge optimist" and he looked upon such calamities and also the occasional setback in his career as presenting him with new challenges for the future.

His mellifluous tones and intimate broadcasting style as a "classic" disc jockey and presenter were unmistakeable and unique.

He continued to have a massive following, even when his mix of Gershwin and Cole Porter seemed, to the younger generation, to be hopelessly dated.

His knowledge of light music and the entertainment business generally was probably unsurpassed.

David Lewis Jacobs was born on May 19 1926, and educated at Belmont College and the Strand School. His father was a fruit and vegetable importer but went bankrupt around the start of the Second World War.

Jacobs then had a series of jobs, including working on a farm and a salesman in a gentleman's outfitters.

He joined the Royal Navy in 1944 and was posted to Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon. It was at this stage in his life that he had his first experience on the airwaves, working in forces broadcasting and producing plays and comedy shows.

After leaving the Navy in 1947, he joined the BBC as a newsreader, but was sacked after giggling at a news item.

He went on to become a freelance disc jockey and radio actor. He hosted the television favourite Juke Box Jury - he described himself as "the hottest property on TV" - and the popular radio show Any Questions?

He once modestly admitted that he felt "intellectually inferior" to many of the people who appeared on that programme.

His broadcasting career took off in a big way and he made appearances on many of the most popular shows, both on radio and television.

These included royal command performances, Blankety Blank, The Frank Sinatra Show, Come Dancing, Pick Of The Pops, Miss World, What's My Line? and many more.

He was awarded the CBE in 1996 for services to broadcasting and for charitable services. These included work for cancer charities and alcohol advice groups.

Jacobs married Patricia Bradlaw in 1949. There were three daughters and the son Jeremy, who died after being hit by a lorry in 1973. This marriage was dissolved in 1972.

After his second wife Caroline died, he married Lindsay Stuart-Hutcheson in 1979.

He is survived by his three daughters from his first marriage.

ends

[Mr Lick]

Gilmar

Gilmar, who has died aged 83, was the goalkeeper in the incomparable Brazilian teams that won the football World Cup in 1958 and 1962.





He was also a veteran of the side that played in the World Cup in England in 1966 when Brazil’s hopes of an unprecedented third successive title ended with Portugal beating them 3-1. He had been dropped for that game, following Brazil’s earlier 3-1 defeat against Hungary, but his place in the annals of his country’s football history was already assured.


Gilmar — he was always known by his first name, although with a variant spelling — kept Brazil’s goal in 104 matches in all, conceding only 95 goals, and took pride in the fact that he never received a red or yellow card. In the course of his international career, he was on the losing side only 16 times. One Brazilian football journalist considered him “simply the greatest of all time”.


He began playing at the age of 15 with Jabaquara, a small, struggling club in his home town of Santos, but within a year had been snapped up by the bigger Corinthians side, based in São Paulo. For a decade from 1951, he kept goal as the club won three state championships; he also had the distinction, albeit somewhat dubious for a goalkeeper, of being the man against whom Pelé scored his first professional goal.


Although Gilmar had enjoyed a successful tournament during the 1958 World Cup, three years later fans were surprised when Corinthians sold him and he returned home to join Santos, a team that was emerging as Brazil’s pre-eminent club side. Alongside Pele and other stars such as Coutinho and Pepe, Gilmar helped to steer Santos through the greatest period in their history. During his seven years in goal there, the team won the Copa Libetadores twice, the World Club Championship twice, and five state championships.


He again kept goal for Brazil in the 1962 World Cup, making a particularly fine save in a crucial group stage match against Spain. The match would determine which team progressed to the quarter finals, and with less than 20 minutes remaining Spain led 1-0.

Amarildo then equalised for Brazil and, with the match perfectly balanced, the Spaniards lofted a high cross into the Brazilian box. Gilmar leapt to punch clear, only for the ball to fall to the Spanish midfielder Marti Verges, who smashed it towards goal. With the ball arrowing toward the corner of the net, Gilmar, prostrate, raised a fist to parry it wide. Minutes later, Brazil took the lead, qualifying for the knockout stages of a competition that they went on to win.


Gilmar dos Santos Neves was born on August 22 1930 in Santos, São Paulo, and was apparently named after his parents, Gilberto and Maria.

His years with Corinthians got off to an unpromising start. Part way through his first season, with the team on the way to the São Paulo state championship, Gilmar was in goal during a 7-3 drubbing at the hands of Portuguesa. Corinthians’ coach blamed him for the rout and Gilmar was relegated to the reserves for almost a year.

He was first called up to the Brazilian national team for the South American Championship in Peru in 1953, making his debut as a substitute in an 8-1 thrashing of Bolivia.

He earned a reputation as a keeper with sharp reflexes and an astute positional sense; famed for an unruffled sense of calm, he also remained confident if he did concede a goal.

In 1961 Gilmar fell out with the management at Corinthians when they accused him of faking an injury. His subsequent return to his home town side Santos marked the start of the club’s golden age. As well as their successes in national and domestic competitions, they won two Intercontinental Cups, in 1962 against Eusébio’s Benfica and in 1963 against Milan.

In retirement Gilmar worked as a supervisor to the Brazilian national team and also ran a car dealership in São Paulo. In 2000, shortly before his 70th birthday, he suffered a serious stroke which left him largely paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.

He is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, and their son, Marcelo, who helped set up an association of former members of Brazil’s World Cup winning team, campaigning for older players, many of whom were living in straitened circumstances, to receive a bonus and monthly pension for their contributions to Brazilian football.


Gilmar, born August 22 1930, died August 25 2013

[Mr Lick]

Emile Griffith

Emile Griffith, who has died aged 75, went down in boxing history as the champion who killed his opponent because he had taunted him as “gay”.




Emile Griffith (left) and Benny 'Kid' Paret in the ring at Madison Square Garden in 1962


In New York’s smoke-filled Madison Square Garden on March 24 1962, Griffith — an elegant fighter with a lightning jab — fought the Cuban Benny “The Kid” Paret to win back his world welterweight title. Griffith knocked out his opponent in the 12th round, but Paret fell into a coma and later died from his injuries.


More than 40 years on, in 2005, the magazine Sports Illustrated reported that Griffith may have been revved up by a homophobic slight directed at him by Paret during the weigh-in for a previous encounter in the ring. According to the magazine, Paret had “swished his limp wrist and hissed that word, maricón [a pejorative Spanish term for homosexual]”.


To make matters worse, Paret had won that earlier bout on a controversial split decision, regaining the welterweight crown that Griffith had taken from him in Miami in April 1961. Their re-match in March 1962 was the clincher — Griffith’s chance to snatch the title back.


At the weigh-in, Griffith was expecting another insult from Paret, warning his trainer Gil Clancy that “if he says anything to me before the fight, I’ll knock him out”.


Sure enough, as Griffith stepped on the scales, Paret slipped behind him, wriggling his body, thrusting his pelvis, and grabbing Griffith’s bottom. “Hey, maricón,” Paret whispered, “I’m going to get you and your husband.” Before Griffith could respond, Clancy stepped between them, telling Griffith to “save it for tonight”.


Half way through the 12th round, in front of a crowd of 7,600 roaring fans, Griffith pinned a stunned Paret into a corner and started raining a barrage of blows to the Cuban’s head. Griffith landed 18 punches in six seconds — “like a baseball bat demolishing a pumpkin”, in the words of Norman Mailer, a ringside witness — before the referee Ruby Goldstein belatedly pulled Griffith away.

The ring fell silent. “I think we just saw a gay murder,” someone murmured to Pete Hamill, covering the fight for the New York Post. As Paret was stretchered away, Griffith faced the television cameras. “I’m very proud to be the welterweight champion again,” he declared, “and I hope Paret is feeling very good.” But when he arrived at the hospital to visit his vanquished opponent, Griffith was rebuffed by Paret’s family and ran off, distressed, through the streets. Passers-by, who had heard reports of the stand-off at the weigh-in, spat and hurled insults at him. Ten days later, Paret was dead, having never regained consciousness.

After the fatal fight, Griffith received many death threats, and although he went on to have a successful career, acknowledged that he was never the same boxer again.

Terrified of killing someone else in the ring, he would fight merely to win on points, never moving in for the knockout, only to be jeered by fans hoping to see the telling blow.

To many inside and outside the sport, the Griffith-Paret fight marked him as a pariah; it was as though Griffith had been blamed by boxing fans for ruining their guilt-free enjoyment of a potentially lethal sport.

The episode cast a shadow over boxing for many years. One American television network ceased its live fight broadcasts, and in New York, Governor Nelson Rockefeller ordered a commission to investigate the bout and the sport. The flat-footed referee, Ruby Goldstein, never officiated in the ring again.


Although Griffith, with his fluting, high-pitched voice and effeminate manner, had been the subject of rumours for years, it would have been unthinkable for him to come out as gay in the ultra-macho world of professional boxing in the early 1960s. In 1992 he was viciously beaten and almost killed on a New York street after leaving a gay bar, but it was never clear if the attack had been motivated by homophobia.

One of eight children, Emile Alphonse Griffith was born on February 3 1938 on St Thomas in the American Virgin Islands, and became a boxer by accident. As a teenager, he had followed his mother to New York, and was packing hats at a clothing factory on a swelteringly hot day. He took off his shirt and his boss, a former amateur boxer, noticed his muscular physique and took Griffith to a gym run by the trainer Gil Clancy.

Under Clancy’s watchful eye, Griffith became a New York Golden Gloves champion and turned professional in 1958. He earned a title shot against Paret in 1961, winning the welterweight belt with a knockout in the 13th round, only to lose it to the same opponent in a re-match five months later.

Having won back the title during their controversial third fight, Griffith eventually moved up to middleweight. He knocked down Dick Tiger for the first time in his career to claim the title, but went on to lose twice to the Italian Nino Benvenuti, and lost two bouts against another great middleweight, the Argentinian Carlos Monzon. Griffith finally retired in 1977 after losing his last three fights.

After hanging up his gloves, with a career record of 85 wins, 24 losses and two draws, Griffith trained several champions, including the Puerto Rican world title holders Wilfred Benitez and Juan Laporte.

Griffith went on to work as a corrections officer at a delinquent boys’ detention centre in New Jersey. Although his health deteriorated in later years, he enjoyed regaling fans with tales of his fights, even though details often eluded the punchdrunk former champion.

Griffith told Sports Illustrated: “I like men and women both. But I don’t like that word: homosexual, gay or faggot. I don’t know what I am. I love men and women the same, but if you ask me which is better... I like women.” In 1971, two months after they met, and with Smokin’ Joe Frazier as his best man, he married Mercedes (Sadie) Donastorg, a dancer, and adopted her daughter. The marriage ended in divorce.

Emile Griffith, who had latterly suffered from pugilistic dementia, is survived by his companion Luis Rodrigo.


Emile Griffith, born February 3 1938, died July 23 2013

[harrybarracuda]

A real legacy....

The real-life Willy Wonka: Brian Sollit, the sweet-maker who gave the world After Eight mints and Lion bars, has died aged 74
Brian Sollit worked for 53 years at the Rowntree's factory in York
He was known for leaving treats out on a tray for workers
His self-professed highlight was creating After Eight mints in 1962

The real-life Willy Wonka: Brian Sollit, the sweet-maker who gave the world After Eight mints and Lion bars, has died aged 74 | Mail Online

[harrybarracuda]

Audio pioneer, founder of Dolby Labs dies at 80
AP, BLOOMBERG
SEP 13, 2013


PORTLAND, OREGON – Ray Dolby, an American inventor and audio pioneer who founded Dolby Laboratories, has died at the age of 80.

The company said Thursday that Dolby died at his home in San Francisco. He had Alzheimer’s and was diagnosed with acute leukemia this summer.

Dolby founded his company in 1965 and grew it into an industry leader in audio technology. His work in noise reduction and surround sound led to the creation of a number of technologies that are still used in music, movies and entertainment today.

Two 1977 blockbuster films, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Star Wars,” used Dolby Stereo technology and made high-end audio an essential part of the films’ appeal.

Kevin Yeaman, president and CEO of Dolby Laboratories, said that Dolby invented an entire industry around delivering an experience in sound. His work ranged from helping to reduce the hiss in cassette recordings to bringing “Star Wars” to life on the big screen in Dolby Stereo.

Dolby held 50 U.S. patents and won a number of notable awards for his life’s work, including several Emmys, two Oscars and a Grammy.

He was awarded the National Medal of Technology from former President Bill Clinton and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the U.S. and the Royal Academy of Engineers in the U.K., among other honors. In 2012, the theater that serves as home to the Academy Awards was renamed the Dolby Theater, and the Ray Dolby Ballroom was named in his honor.

“Ray really managed to have a dream job,” said Dagmar, his wife of 47 years. “Because he could do exactly what he wanted to do, whichever way he wanted to do it, and in the process, did a lot of good for many music and film lovers. And in the end, built a very successful company.”

Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon, and his family eventually moved to the San Francisco Peninsula. It was there that he started his professional work at Ampex Corp. working on videotape recording systems while he was still a student.

After graduating from Stanford University, he left Ampex to study at Cambridge University. Following his time as a United Nations adviser in India, he returned to England and founded Dolby in London. In 1976, he moved to San Francisco, where the company established its headquarters.

When Dolby Laboratories went public in 2005, its shares surged 35 percent on the first day of trading. The founder received $306 million from the IPO, and his 69.8 percent stake became worth $1.65 billion. As of Thursday, his net worth was $2.85 billion.

Dolby’s co-workers described him as an inspiring and thoughtful man, who cared passionately about engineering.

“To be an inventor, you have to be willing to live with a sense of uncertainty, to work in the darkness and grope toward an answer, to put up with the anxiety about whether there is an answer,” Dolby once said.

Dolby and his wife were active in philanthropy and supported numerous causes and organizations. The Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building at the University of California, San Francisco’s Stem Cell Center and the Brain Health Center at California Pacific Medical Center were opened with their support.

His family described Dolby as generous, patient, curious and fair.

“Though he was an engineer at heart, my father’s achievements in technology grew out of a love of music and the arts,” said his son Tom, a filmmaker and novelist. “He brought his appreciation of the artistic process to all of his work in film and audio recording.”