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  1. #2426
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sumocakewalk View Post
    A recognizable actor for me, but I had some difficulty remembering just where I recalled him from. I thought it was one of the Bond films, but it turns out it was a Sydney Pollack film from 1974 called The Yakuza. It's one of my favorite Robert Mitchum flicks from that era. R.I.P. James Shigeta.
    Oooh I remember wincing at the yubitsume scenes....

    Good spot!

  2. #2427
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    01 AUGUST 2014
    Guitarist, songwriter for Alice Cooper dies at 71
    Published on NewsOK Modified: August 1, 2014 at 2:24 pm • Published: August 1, 2014
    NEW YORK (AP) — Dick Wagner, the skilled guitarist who worked with Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Kiss and Aerosmith, and also co-wrote many of Cooper's hits, died of respiratory failure Wednesday, his personal manager and business partner said Friday. He was 71.

    Susan Michelson, Wagner's partner in Desert Dreams Productions, said the performer died at Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center in Arizona. He had been there for three weeks, Michelson said.

    Wagner grew up in Michigan. His website said he went on tour with Reed in 1973 and joined Cooper a year later. He co-wrote the Cooper hits "Only Women Bleed," ''You and Me" and "I Never Cry."

    Wagner is survived by a daughter and two sons. A memorial in Michigan is being planned.

  3. #2428
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    Oscar-winning ‘Godfather of Makeup’ Dick Smith dies at 92
    ASSOCIATED PRESS
    The Globe and Mail
    Published Friday, Aug. 01 2014, 9:00 AM EDT







    Dick Smith, the Oscar-winning “Godfather of Makeup" who amused, fascinated and terrified moviegoers by devising unforgettable transformations for Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Linda Blair in The Exorcist among many others, has died. He was 92.

    Smith, the first makeup artist to win an Academy Award for lifetime achievement, died Wednesday night in California of natural causes. His death was confirmed to The Associated Press by the president of the Make-up Artists and Hairstylists Guild, Sue Cabral-Ebert, who declined to give further details.

    “Our lives have been blessed by our father’s steadfast love and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your kind words in remembrance of him,” Smith’s sons, David and Douglas Smith, said in a statement.

    Widely regarded as the master in his field, Smith helped pioneer such now-standard materials as liquid foam latex and make special effects more realistic and spectacular. He was also known and loved for his generosity, whether exchanging letters about his craft with a teenage J.J. Abrams or mentoring future Oscar-winner special effects artist Rick Baker, who in 2011 presented Smith his honorary statuette.

    “He took makeup to a whole new level; it’s unbelievable what this man has done,” Baker, whose own credits include Men in Black and Michael Jackson’s Thriller video, said at the ceremony. “His work inspired a whole generation of up and coming artists.”

    With Smith on hand, the middle-aged Brando was transformed into the jowly patriarch Vito Corleone, the teenage Blair into a scarred and wild-eyed demon, and William Hurt into a mass of protoplasm for Altered States.

    Smith and Paul LeBlanc shared an Oscar in 1985 for their work on Amadeus, for which Smith spent hours each day turning 44-year-old F. Murray Abraham into an elderly man as Mozart’s rival Antonio Salieri.

    “Dick Smith is the best makeup man in the world,” Abraham, himself an Oscar winner for Amadeus, later said. “Once I looked into a mirror, at my face, I felt like it was completely convincing.”

    Smith also fashioned a mohawk out of a plastic cap and chopped up hair for Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver and created breasts out of foam rubber for Katherine Ross in The Stepford Wives.

    Through foam latex and a newly flexible kind of false eyelashes, Smith managed to capture extreme old age in Little Big Man, which starred Dustin Hoffman, in his mid-30s at the time, as a centenarian claiming he had survived the Battle of Little Big Horn.

    “Even when the characters were fantastically weird, I always tried to make them believable,” Smith told the Washington Post in 2007. “Actors have to feel like they are the person they are portraying.”

    Before breaking through in Hollywood, he was among the first great makeup artists for television. Smith headed NBC’s makeup division from 1945 to 1959, using soldered wire to create a panther mask for a then-unknown Eva Marie Saint and slushed-in latex to enhance the nose of Jose Ferrer for Cyrano de Bergerec.

    In the sixties, Smith’s experience turning Jonathan Frid into a 100-plus-year-old vampire for the series Dark Shadows helped prepare him for Little Big Man.

    His other notable aging projects included Walter Matthau for The Sunshine Boys and Hal Holbrook for the 1967 TV special Mark Twain Tonight! for which Smith won a Primetime Emmy. Holbrook and Matthau were among those who participated in a 1991 TV documentary about Smith.

    A native of Larchmont, N.Y., Smith described himself as an introvert with little interest in special effects until spotting an instructional manual while attending Yale University. He became so obsessed that he made himself up as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, scaring his classmates. He later turned up at a screening of Frankenstein as the title character.

    After school and serving in the Army, he acted on his father’s advice and took a chance on television. One of his early assignments was applying makeup to Democratic Party leaders at the 1948 national convention.

    Out of all the praise he received, Smith liked to cite a compliment paid by Laurence Olivier, whom Smith worked on for a 1959 TV production of The Moon and Sixpence.

    Olivier’s character was based on the painter Gauguin, who died of leprosy. Smith never forgot Olivier’s response after he completed making up the actor. “’Dick, it [the makeup] does the acting for me’,” Olivier told him.

  4. #2429
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    Mike Smith, former Radio 1 DJ, dies aged 59



    Former BBC Radio 1 breakfast show DJ Mike Smith has died aged 59.


    He died on Friday after complications from major heart surgery, his aerial filming company, Flying TV, said.

    Smith spent six years at Radio 1 between 1982 and 1988, and was also a presenter on Top of the Pops and hosted the BBC's coverage of Live Aid.

    His wife of 25 years, the TV presenter Sarah Greene, said she would like to thank hospital staff for their care and compassion.


    Smith joined Radio 1 in 1982



    She asked her family and friends to be allowed to mourn in peace.

    Smith joined BBC Radio 1 from Capital Radio in 1982. He then graduated to the breakfast show, taking over from Mike Read in May 1986.

    He did the job for two years, during which time Diana, Princess of Wales, declared he was her favourite DJ.

    He and Greene hit the headlines in September 1988 when they were both seriously injured in a helicopter crash in Gloucestershire. Smith, who was piloting the aircraft, crashed it into some trees.

    Both survived but Greene broke both her legs and an arm, while Smith suffered a suffered a broken back and ankle.

    The couple became engaged soon after the crash and were married a year later.

    Smith, who was born in Essex, was also well known for his TV appearances in the 1980s on the BBC's Breakfast Time, and The Late, Late Breakfast Show alongside Noel Edmonds,

    He founded his company, which supplies aerial shots for UK broadcasters, in 2003.

    He had rarely appeared on TV or radio in recent years - instead focusing on his business - but was interviewed in 2010 by Chris Moyles for a BBC documentary about Radio 1 breakfast show presenters.

    Smith said at the time: "I miss radio tremendously, TV not so much.

    "Radio has a contact with the audience in a very special way. It's a privilege to be allowed into people's lives."



    Noel Edmonds and Mike Smith appeared together on the Late, Late Breakfast Show in the 1980s


    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28624798

  5. #2430
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    Jean Panhard - obituary

    Jean Panhard was a car maker who maintained his family firm’s reputation for engineering excellence into the post-war period




    Jean Panhard, who has died aged 101, played a vital role in ensuring the survival of his family firm which, as Panhard et Levassor, had marketed the first production cars to the public in 1891.

    The French company, founded by Jean’s great-uncle Réné Panhard and Emile Levassor in 1887, had rewritten the automobile design rule-book, putting the engine at the front, and, for the first time, transmitting power through a system of gears.


    In 1894 Evelyn Ellis, driving a Panhard et Levassor vehicle, became the first man to drive a car on British soil, making the journey from Micheldever station in Hampshire to his home at Datchet, Berkshire, thus helping to persuade the government of the day to scrap the requirement for a man with a red flag to walk in front of any self-propelled vehicle (up to now usually farm vehicles powered by steam traction engines) on a public road.


    In 1900 Panhard et Levassor was still the most important car manufacturer and exporter in the world, and the firm maintained its reputation for engineering excellence into the 20th century. A Panhard roadster set a world speed record of 133mph in 1934. Panhard cars excelled on the racetrack too, winning a famous victory in the 1893 Paris-Nice-Paris race and going on to win a further 1,500 races, including the Index of Performance Award in the Le Mans 24 Hour race on no fewer than 10 occasions.



    The Panhard et Levassor Dynamic




    The Panhard Dyna Z



    Jean Panhard and the 1967 Panhard 24 BT

  6. #2431
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    Neal Arden - obituary

    Neal Arden was an actor who became one of Britain’s favourite radio presenters as one of the voices behind Housewives’ Choice




    Neal Arden, who has died aged 104, was for more than 20 years one of Britain’s favourite presenters on Housewives’ Choice, the popular record request programme broadcast every morning, six days a week, from 1946 to 1967 on the BBC Light Programme.

    In a long and varied career in theatre, film, radio and television, Arden worked with many of the leading stars of their day, from Richard Tauber, Leslie Henson, Trevor Howard and Dulcie Gray to Roger Moore, Harry Secombe, Prunella Scales, Donald Sinden and Doris Day. He was an assiduous fundraiser for charity and, as an actor, took numerous supporting roles both on stage and in television series such as Maigret, Ivanhoe, Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green and I, Claudius. He also wrote songs, plays and film and television scripts.



    But it was for Housewives’ Choice that Arden was best known. Very much of its time, the programme was the flagship of a new post-war schedule for the BBC’s Light Programme, and was intended for women left at home doing the housework while their men were at work, although the presenters were invariably male

  7. #2432
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    Ray Lonnen - obituary

    Ray Lonnen was an actor whose TV career spanned 50 years and who was best known for his role as an undercover agent in Ulster




    Ray Lonnen, who has died aged 74, was an actor best known for his starring role in the 1982 television drama Harry’s Game, in which he played an undercover Army officer pitting his wits against the IRA at the height of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

    Cast as Capt Harry Brown, hand-picked for his deadly mission by the Prime Minister, Lonnen’s character infiltrated terrorist ranks to track down the assassin of a government minister. The three-part thriller was screened on ITV on consecutive nights, with the haunting theme, an Irish lament by the Gaelic group Clannad, becoming an unlikely pop chart hit, reaching No 5 in November 1982.


    Lonnen had already come to notice in three seasons of ITV’s Cold War drama series The Sandbaggers (1978-80), appearing as one of three undercover agents.

    As Sandbagger One, his easy charm proved an effective counterpoint to Roy Marsden’s gruff portrayal of Neil Burnside, head of a secret counter-espionage unit.


    These two high-profile roles made Lonnen a familiar television face, but failed to
    launch him into the film career he might have expected. He did, however, play James Bond in a series of screen tests opposite potential Bond girls.


    In a television career spanning more than half a century, Lonnen appeared in dozens of popular series, including Z Cars (1975-76); Doctor Who; the David Nobbs sitcom Rich Tea And Sympathy (1991); and Crossroads. He also voiced the animated series Budgie the Little Helicopter (1994)



    Ray Lonnen in 'Crossroads'

  8. #2433
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    Professor John Fitzpatrick - obituary

    Professor John Fitzpatrick was a urologist who played a leading role in improving the treatment of men suffering from prostate cancer




    Professor John Fitzpatrick, who has died aged 65, was among the world’s most eminent urologists, and one of the leading lights in the transformation in the care of men suffering from prostate cancer.

    Fitzpatrick was one of the earliest advocates of the use of prostate specific antigen (PSA) as a means of early detection of the disease. More recently, in his capacity as editor-in-chief of the British Journal of Urology International (BJUI), he had helped to promote the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in advance of prostate biopsy to facilitate the targeting of the cancer and to reduce unnecessary biopsies

  9. #2434
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    JT Edson - obituary

    JT Edson was a writer whose fight-packed, politically incorrect Westerns crafted in Melton Mowbray sold 27 million copies





    JT Edson, who has died aged 86, was a former British Army dog-handler who wrote more than 130 Western novels, accounting for some 27 million sales in paperback.

    Edson’s deft, if hardly elegant, works – produced on a word processor in an Edwardian semi at Melton Mowbray — contain clear, crisp action in the traditions of B-movies and Western television series. What they lack in psychological depth is made up for by at least 12 good fights per volume . Each portrays a vivid, idealised “West That Never Was”, fuelled by corny jokes at a pace that rarely slackens.


    His authentic descriptions of 19th-century weapons, his interest in what causes a gun to jam and in the mechanics of cheating at cards enjoyed a strong following, especially among serving British soldiers .


    But his accounts of catfights involving women punching, scratching and biting as they tear the clothes off each other in the mud, did not appeal to the new breed of feminist publishing executives. Others pointed out that a young man sent to Broadmoor for killing a Sunday School teacher claimed to have modelled himself on Edson’s hero, the half-Comanche, half-Irish Ysabel Kid. There was also the novel The Hooded Riders (1968), which portrayed an organisation resembling the Ku Klux Klan as a heroic resistance group.


    In 1984 the Labour Party protested about the characters in JT’s Ladies: they included a gunslinger called Roy Hattersley (then the party’s deputy leader) and his sidekick Len Murray and three desperadoes named Alex Kitson, Alan Fisher and David Basnett — all of them well-known trade union leaders.

    His heroes were often based on his favourite film stars, so that Dusty Fog resembled Audie Murphy, and the Ysabel Kid was an amalgam of Elvis Presley in Flaming Star and Jack Buetel in The Outlaw.



    Before becoming a recluse in his last years, JT’s favourite boast was that Melton Mowbray was famous for three things: “The pie, Stilton cheese and myself – but not necessarily in that order’’.

  10. #2435
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    Last 'Pitman painter' Norman Cornish dies aged 94



    Norman Cornish said in 2011 that he still painted every day


    The last of the "Pitman painters", known for his pictures of everyday life, has died at the age of 94.

    Norman Cornish, of Spennymoor, County Durham, was the last surviving artist of the Pitman's Academy at The Spennymoor Settlement.

    The settlement was set up in 1930, giving mining families access to the arts and Mr Cornish was one of its most famous students.

    His son-in-law Mike Thornton said he died on Friday.

    The settlement became known as the Pitman's Academy because its clubs nurtured the talents of people such as writer Sid Chaplin and artist Tom McGuinness.

    Cornish spent 33 years working in mines before forging a career as an artist at 47.

    In an interview with the BBC in 2011, he said painting was like an "itch that you have to scratch" and that he still painted every day.



    His work included vivid nostalgic pictures of ordinary life including women in headscarves, men in flat caps, fish and chip vans and horse-drawn carts.

    Other scenes included men playing dominoes in the pub and children skipping in the street. Each painting sold for thousands.

    A statement on his website said: "It is with great sadness that we announce the death of celebrated artist Norman Cornish who passed away peacefully on the evening of the 1st of August, aged 94.

    "A book of condolence will be available at Northumbria University Gallery from 5 August."

    The eldest of nine children, whose father was out of work, Cornish said he had no option but to start working in a mine at the age of 14.

    He soon joined the Spennymoor Settlement, a cultural venture that ran art classes and had a library where he could learn about Van Gogh, Toulouse Lautrec and Renoir.


  11. #2436
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Lick View Post
    Mike Smith, former Radio 1 DJ, dies aged 59



    Former BBC Radio 1 breakfast show DJ Mike Smith has died aged 59.


    He died on Friday after complications from major heart surgery, his aerial filming company, Flying TV, said.

    Smith spent six years at Radio 1 between 1982 and 1988, and was also a presenter on Top of the Pops and hosted the BBC's coverage of Live Aid.

    His wife of 25 years, the TV presenter Sarah Greene, said she would like to thank hospital staff for their care and compassion.


    Smith joined Radio 1 in 1982



    She asked her family and friends to be allowed to mourn in peace.

    Smith joined BBC Radio 1 from Capital Radio in 1982. He then graduated to the breakfast show, taking over from Mike Read in May 1986.

    He did the job for two years, during which time Diana, Princess of Wales, declared he was her favourite DJ.

    He and Greene hit the headlines in September 1988 when they were both seriously injured in a helicopter crash in Gloucestershire. Smith, who was piloting the aircraft, crashed it into some trees.

    Both survived but Greene broke both her legs and an arm, while Smith suffered a suffered a broken back and ankle.

    The couple became engaged soon after the crash and were married a year later.

    Smith, who was born in Essex, was also well known for his TV appearances in the 1980s on the BBC's Breakfast Time, and The Late, Late Breakfast Show alongside Noel Edmonds,

    He founded his company, which supplies aerial shots for UK broadcasters, in 2003.

    He had rarely appeared on TV or radio in recent years - instead focusing on his business - but was interviewed in 2010 by Chris Moyles for a BBC documentary about Radio 1 breakfast show presenters.

    Smith said at the time: "I miss radio tremendously, TV not so much.

    "Radio has a contact with the audience in a very special way. It's a privilege to be allowed into people's lives."



    Noel Edmonds and Mike Smith appeared together on the Late, Late Breakfast Show in the 1980s


    BBC News - In pictures: Mike Smith
    RIP Mike

    This thread is great memory jogger which is one of the reason I always look in.

  12. #2437
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    James Brady, Former Reagan Press Secretary, Dies At 73
    DOUG MATACONIS ˇ MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2014



    James Brady, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s Press Secretary and became the symbol of the gun control movement after being shot during the assassination attempt on the President in March 1981, has died at the age of 73:
    James S. Brady, the often-irreverent press secretary to President Ronald Reagan who was shot in the head during an assassination attempt on his boss in 1981 and who became an enduring symbol of the fight against unfettered access to guns in American society, died Aug. 4 at age 73.
    The Associated Press reported that his death was announced by his family. No other details were immediately available.
    Mr. Brady remained an influential presence in the gun-control debate decades after the shooting that left him partially paralyzed. He and his wife, Sarah, often described as the “first family” of gun control, battled six years to pass legislation that in 1993 ushered in background checks for handguns bought from federally licensed dealers.
    Mr. Brady was a veteran Republican aide and a popular figure among Washington journalists. He was equipped with a rapier wit and a buoyant charm that tended to defuse controversy, even before he began working for the White House in January 1981.
    Incoming first lady Nancy Reagan had reportedly urged her husband to appoint a press secretary who was young and handsome enough to represent the White House on television.
    Nicknamed “The Bear” for his burly physique, Mr. Brady was also balding and nearing 40. At the next press briefing, he quipped to the gathered press corps, “I come before you today as not just another pretty face, but out of sheer talent.”
    The assassination attempt, 69 days into the Reagan presidency, redefined Mr. Brady from a garrulous footnote in American politics into an impassioned and often-impatient voice for gun-control legislation.
    On March 30, 1981, Mr. Brady had originally asked one of his aides to go with the president on a routine assignment to address a gathering of the AFL-CIO at the Hilton Hotel in Washington. Mr. Brady changed his mind at the last minute and joined Reagan.
    After speaking to the union delegates, Reagan and his party made their way out of the hotel and were walking to the presidential limousine when they were fired upon about 2:30 p.m. The shooter was John W. Hinckley Jr., a young man who said he hoped the assassination would impress the actress Jodie Foster.
    Outside the Hilton, bystanders, police and Secret Service agents wrestled Hinckley to the ground and arrested him. He got off six bullets from the .22 caliber Rohm RG-14 revolver, which he had bought at a pawn shop in Dallas for $29.
    Mr. Brady was the first person hit and was struck above the left eye. Reagan had been hit by a bullet that bounced off the limousine. Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and Washington police officer Thomas Delahanty were also injured in the attack. Brady, Reagan and McCarthy were taken to George Washington University Hospital. Delahanty was taken to the Washington Hospital Center, which is now known as MedStar Washington Hospital Center.
    The bullet that entered Mr. Brady’s head shattered into more than two dozen fragments, with several penetrating his brain.
    His condition was so dire that Secret Service agents at the hospital reported erroneously to their superiors that the press secretary had died. CBS, NBC and ABC reported the news — later retracted — while delivering updates on the president.
    Mr. Brady was not dead but he was close.
    Neurosurgeon Arthur I. Kobrine later recalled telling the president’s personal physician about Mr. Brady: “It’s a terrible injury. I don’t think he has a chance. I don’t think he’s going to make it, but I think we should try.”
    Mr. Brady came through the surgery well but the road ahead was punctuated by dramatic ups and downs. In the next several months, he underwent two surgeries to halt leaks of spinal fluid from his cranial cavity, another surgery for a pulmonary embolism, and had epileptic seizures, pneumonia and persistent fevers.
    Officially, Brady retained the title of Press Secretary throughout the Reagan Administration, although his duties were minimal going forward. Today, the press briefing room at the White House is named after him. Over the next thirty years, Brady, along with his wife, would become a leading figure in the gun control movement:
    In public appearances, congressional testimony and through the news media, Sarah Brady became the public face of the gun-control movement in America. She used her husband’s story to rally support for legislation.
    She joined what was then a little-known lobbying group, the National Council to Control Handguns, which was later called Handgun Control Inc. and is now the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
    Mr. Brady joined his wife in the gun-control efforts, but his physical limitations made it difficult for him to play more than a supporting role for his wife’s endeavors.
    The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was first introduced in Congress in 1987. The key provision of the bill imposed a background check — as well as a waiting period to buy a handgun from a federally licensed dealer. The background checks were designed to uncover those who had been barred from buying guns, including felons and the mentally ill.
    During one of the many skirmishes that took place over the years before the Brady bill’s passage, Mr. Brady testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and said that members of Congress who declined to support the measure in previous votes were “gutless” for their “pandering” to the National Rifle Association.
    The influential gun lobby opposed the measure on several grounds, among them that any waiting period would inconvenience legitimate gun buyers.
    In his testimony, Mr. Brady noted poignantly, “I need help getting out of bed, help taking a shower, and help getting dressed, and — damn it — I need help going to the bathroom. . . . I guess I’m paying for their convenience.”
    Nearly 10 years to the day after he was nearly killed by Hinckley, Reagan himself joined the fray, announcing his support for the Brady bill in an op-ed piece in the New York Times. President Bill Clinton signed the bill into law in 1993.
    As activists, the Bradys were gradually joined by a growing roster of political voices such as Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), whose husband was killed and her son wounded in a 1993 gun massacre, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who suffered traumatic head wounds in an assassination attempt in 2011.
    The Brady bill would be cited time and again as a symbol of the importance of gun-control laws, but there was debate over the measure’s actual effect.
    In 2000, a study conducted by public policy professors Philip J. Cook of Duke University and Jens Ludwig of Georgetown University found that the Brady bill — at least in its initial form — had probably not been a factor in reducing gun-related homicides nationwide.
    Those of us who were alive during for the events of March 31, 1981 well remember the erroneous reports of Brady’s death. As it turned out, he had something more to give to his country.

  13. #2438
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    Surgeon General Jesse Steinfeld who fought tobacco dies at 87 in Pomona
    By Krysta Fauria, Associated Press
    POSTED: 08/05/14, 10:04 PM PDT | 0 COMMENTS



    LOS ANGELES >> Dr. Jesse Steinfeld, who became the first surgeon general ever forced out of office by the president after he campaigned hard against the dangers of smoking during the Richard Nixon era, died Tuesday. He was 87.

    Steinfeld died Tuesday morning in a nursing home in suburban Pomona following a stroke he suffered about a month ago, said his daughter, Susan Steinfeld of La Cańada Flintridge.

    “He laid the groundwork for us to be better people and make the world a better place,” she said by telephone.

    Steinfeld was a cancer researcher and taught at the USC medical school before serving as Nixon’s surgeon general from 1969-1973.

    In office, Steinfeld won the ire of the tobacco industry for his stubborn efforts to publicize the hazards of smoking. He changed cigarette package labels that lukewarmly stated tobacco use might be connected to health problems.

    Steinfeld’s label boldly warned: “The surgeon general has determined that smoking is hazardous to your health.”

    He issued a report in 1971 that argued for tighter restrictions on smoking in public to protect people from secondhand smoke. He promoted bans on smoking in restaurants, theaters, planes and other public places — decades before such prohibitions became commonplace.

    “It’s a good lesson for everyone on how long it takes to change public opinion,” said another daughter, Mary Beth Steinfeld of Sacramento.

    Steinfeld refused to meet with tobacco industry lobbyists and hung signs around his office that read, “Thank you for not smoking,” she said.

    Steinfeld believed his anti-tobacco stance led to Nixon’s request for his resignation at the start of Nixon’s second term.

    “He always used to talk about how he thought the tobacco companies were pressuring Nixon to get rid of him,” Mary Beth Steinfeld said.

    After Steinfeld left, the position of surgeon general remained vacant until President Jimmy Carter appointed Dr. Julius Richmond in 1977.

    The only other surgeon general to be forced out of office was Dr. Jocelyn Elders, who was fired in 1994 during President Bill Clinton’s administration, the Los Angeles Times reported.

    Steinfeld was also vocal on other controversial issues, arguing that television violence has a bad influence on children, promoting the fluoridation of water and bans on the artificial sweetener cyclamate and the pesticide DDT.

    Steinfeld later served as the Director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Medical Cancer Center and as a professor at the Mayo Medical School. He also was the president of the Medical College of Georgia, in Augusta, from 1983-1987, when he retired.

    In addition to his two daughters, Steinfeld is survived by another daughter, Jody Stefansson of Pasadena, California; his wife, Gen, of Pomona, California and two grandchildren.

  14. #2439
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    Although probably not well known to the general public, myself included, this man's efforts seem to have made a major contribution to health.

    Here's a little bit more on his Surgeon General tenure from wiki:

    During Steinfeld's tenure as Surgeon General, two important new Public Health Service programs were established, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the National Health Service Corps. As a specialist in the field of cancer, Steinfeld also no doubt welcomed the passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971, which enhanced the ability of the Public Health Service to combat this deadly disease.

    R.I.P. Jesse.

  15. #2440
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    Marilyn Burns, Texas Chain Saw Massacre actress, dies aged 65



    Burns played teenager Sally Hardesty in the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre


    US actress Marilyn Burns, best known for her "scream queen" role in horror classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, has died aged 65.

    The Erie, Pennsylvania-born actress, who played teenager Sally Hardesty in Tobe Hooper's 1974 film, was found dead at her home near Houston, Texas.

    Burns went on to play Linda Kasabian, a member of the Charles Manson "family", in 1976 TV movie Helter Skelter.

    In later life she made cameos in other iterations of the Massacre franchise.

    She was an unnamed "patient on gurney" in 1994's Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, a film notable for providing early roles to future Oscar winners Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey.

    Burns also appeared briefly in 2013's Texas Chainsaw 3D, both as a character called Verna and in footage from Hooper's original.



    Tobe Hooper directed the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre


    Her other films included Hooper's 1977 film Eaten Alive, about a hotel owner who feeds his guests to his pet crocodile.

    But she remains best known for her role in the original Chain Saw Massacre as the sole survivor of Leatherface's psychotic rampage.

    "Afterwards, I was just so grateful it was over," she revealed in a 2004 interview. "I probably was the happiest girl alive.

    "I ran through dark woods chased by someone holding a live chainsaw!" she continued. "Where was my head?

    "Sure it was tough, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I wouldn't have traded the experience for love or money."

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    AUGUST 7, 2014 | 03:01PM PT
    Sebastian Torrelio
    @STorrelio



    Philip Marshak, a director known for his work on numerous horror and X-rated films of the 1970s and ‘80s, died Thursday, July 24 in Los Angeles after a battle with diabetes and leukemia. He was 80.

    Born in the Bronx, NY, Marshak worked as an electrician with his father after serving in the Navy during the Korean War. He grew to be a striving entrepreneur, operating numerous small businesses throughout his life. Marshak opened one of the first gay bars in Los Angeles, Georgie Girl.

    He studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre in New York before moving to Los Angeles with his wife, Pamela, to work towards his dream of being a filmmaker. He would create his first short film, “Reuben’s Revenge,” while attending film school in Los Angeles. His first feature film, “Potluck,” was shot guerilla-style in New York without permits.

    Marshak would go on to direct several low-budget adult horror films such as “Dante’s Inferno,” “Dracula Sucks,” “Cataclysm” and a segment of “Night Train to Terror,” some of which went on to become cult classics.

    He is survived by Pamela, his wife of 50 years, two siblings, Norman and Judith, three children, Darryl, Shane and Tracy, and six grandchildren.

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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    James Brady, Former Reagan Press Secretary, Dies At 73
    DOUG MATACONIS ˇ MONDAY, AUGUST 4, 2014



    James Brady, who served as President Ronald Reagan’s Press Secretary and became the symbol of the gun control movement after being shot during the assassination attempt on the President in March 1981, has died at the age of 73:.

    Former White House press secretary's death ruled a homicide


    The death this week of former White House press secretary James Brady, who survived a gunshot wound to the head in a 1981 assassination attempt on US president Ronald Reagan, has been ruled a homicide by a medical examiner, District of Columbia police said on Friday.

    John Hinckley Jr shot Brady, who never regained normal use of his limbs and was often in a wheelchair. His family said he died Monday at age 73 from a series of health issues.

    After the shooting, Brady undertook a high-profile, personal crusade for gun control, which continues to be one of the country's most hotly debated issues. The Brady law, named after him, requires a five-day wait and background check before a handgun can be sold. President Bill Clinton signed it into law in 1993.

    Nancy Bull, district administrator for the Virginia medical examiner's office, which made the ruling, declined to disclose the results of the autopsy and referred inquiries to police.

    District police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said the department was notified of the homicide ruling on Friday.


    Former White House press secretary's death ruled a homicide | World news | theguardian.com

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    Menahem Golan, best known for producing and directing scores of schlocky ’80s action pics under the Cannon Films banner—including the likes of Bloodsport and some of the Death Wish sequels—died Friday, Haaretz reports . He was 85.



    Obsessed with movies from a young age, the Israeli-born Golan got his start working with B-movie master Roger Corman on 1963’s The Young Racers. He eventually teamed up with his cousin Yoram Globus to head up The Cannon Group, a fledgling production company that they bought in 1979. They transformed Cannon into a veritable force in the industry by the mid-’80s, producing testosterone-driven films for the likes of Sean Connery, Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, Sylvester Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

    Though his action pics are certainly a product of their time, Golan did have a somewhat interesting influence on today’s superhero landscape, which might have looked drastically different had he been even the least bit successful. While churning out 30+ films a year at Cannon, Golan also oversaw the production on 1987’s Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, a somewhat notorious flop both critically and at the box office that essentially killed the franchise until 2006’s Superman Returns. The very public disaster also launched Cannon Films into infamy; it folded in 1993 (Golan resigned in 1989). Golan also tried for years to get a Spider-Man film off of the ground, but the funding fell out when his 21st Century Pictures folded and Sony Pictures eventually snatched up the rights.

    Golan moved back to Israel after his next effort, International Dynamic Pictures, was seized by creditors along with all of his assets. He continued to work in films for years in some capacity in both Israel and the U.S.

    In a strange coincidence, 2014 also saw the arrival of two documentaries focusing on Golan. The Go-Go Boys, made with the support of Golan and Globus, premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The second is Mark Hartley’s critical portrait of the rise and fall of Cannon, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films. The film features interviews with Elliott Gould, Franco Zeffirelli, Tobe Hooper, and Dolph Lundgren, who apparently had been imagined for the part of the Green Goblin. It’s described poignantly as: “A one-of-a-kind story about two-of-a-kind men who (for better or worse) changed film forever.”

    Golan had a unique charm that continues to resonate with film lovers, as evidenced by the cult revival of his 1980 sci-fi musical The Apple. In EW‘s 2004 Must List interview , the then 75-year-old Golan said, ”I sort of had a feeling that it was a little bit, you know, ahead of its time,” before admitting that he wanted to jump out of his hotel window at the film’s premiere. ”I’m astonished to hear that it’s turned cult,” he added. ”You don’t know what news you’ve given me. I love to see people having fun and laughing.”

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    Veteran actor dies after filming first Game of Thrones scenes



    JJ Murphy had joined the cast of Game of Thrones as the oldest member of the Night's Watch

    A veteran actor who had just filmed his first scenes for Game of Thrones has died.

    JJ Murphy, 86, died suddenly on Friday at his home in Belfast.

    Mr Murphy had recently joined the cast for series five of the HBO series, which is filmed in Northern Ireland.

    He had been cast as Ser Denys Mallister of the Night's Watch. The character was due to appear throughout series five, and Mr Murphy had been expected to film more scenes this summer.

    He also had a role alongside fellow Game of Thrones actor, Charles Dance, in the upcoming Hollywood film, Dracula Untold.

    The movie was filmed in Northern Ireland in 2013 with a budget of Ł100m, and is due to be released in October.

    Dracula Untold was not Mr Murphy's first experience of Bram Stoker's creation. He played Van Helsing in a 1980 production of The Death of Dracula at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.

    He was well known in Northern Ireland for his stage work having trained at the Old Group Drama School in the 1940s, and as a member of the Lyric Players Theatre.

    Belfast born Mr Murphy leaves behind wife Mary, and two children, Joseph and Jane, and granddaughter Sarah-Jane.

    His funeral will be held in Belfast on Wednesday

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    US actor Robin Williams found dead



    US actor Robin Williams found dead, aged 63, in apparent suicide, California police say.

    Williams was famous for films such as Good Morning Vietnam and Dead Poet's Society.

    The authorities in California are describing it as an apparent suicide.

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    https://celebrity.yahoo.com/blogs/ce...231414092.html

    Robin Williams, the manic comic who morphed from TV's Mork from Ork to Oscar-winning glory, is dead of an apparent suicide. He was 63.
    Emergency personnel were called to Williams's home in Tiburon, California, at 11:55 a.m. local time, per the Marin County Sheriff's Office.

    Williams was found unconscious and pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities are investigating the death, and an autopsy is forthcoming, but initial evidence points to "a suicide due to asphyxia," according to Marin Sheriff's Lt. Keith Boyle.

    In a brief statement, publicist Mara Buxbaum said Williams had been "battling severe depression of late. This is a tragic and sudden loss. The family respectfully asks for their privacy as they grieve during this very difficult time."

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    Damn, he was a likable guy and there was talk of a second Mrs. Doutbfire in the works I was hoping to share with my boys when it came out, I guess he won't be staring in that one this time if it happens at all now? He has had long term issues even being in treatment for some time early in his life for the same issues not unlike Jonathan Winters, they were good friends later when Robin gained his own notoriety and he emulated Jonathan's silliness in routines by his own admission.

    It seems a lot of comedians have a tough childhood or other similar traumas that make them good comedians because of how the spin their inner pain but comedy is really a way for them to escape their pain for a time until it seems to catch up with them in the end.

    RIP Robin you made me laugh during my life time and just recently my children too, just yesterday we watched RV for about the third or fourth time and today this.. Shocking and disappointing news to say the least.

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    I had to do a double take when I just turned on the news. How absolutely shocking.

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    Quote Originally Posted by crazy dog View Post
    probably the least 'funny' man ever, not surprised he was depressed.
    Has quite an impressive portfolio for the least "funny man ever". To echo Harry, well done ... He made millions of people and mostly children laugh as well he played some very worth while, true life roles like Patch Adams who's comedy was to pick up the spirits of sick children and he played it very well. He won an Oscar for Good Will Hunting and many other notable roles like Andrian Croneur in Good Morning Vietnam.

    He was not JUST a comedian, in fact did more in serious roles but was good in a wide spectrum of roles including voice over characters in many children films he will be missed and his method of death is a difficult one to explain to the youth who admired him.
    He also had 4 movies still in planning or production he left behind as well.

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    Robin Williams is in the latest Night In The Museum, due out in December.


    R.I.P. Robin....a very, very funny comedian, a highly intelligent person, with a great heart...a true human being.

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