The RIP Famous Person Thread

[peterpan]

Ah crap. That's sad. Thanks Terry for all the wondrous words.

terry was the same age as I in fact two months younger, with exactly the same disease. So I am not looking forward to a long future, but what the hell.

[BaitongBoy]

Good luck with it, peter...Enjoy the time you have...

[peterpan]

Intend to BB its what ever life dishes you out and two beat daughters and wife, isn't too bad.

[BaitongBoy]

^Got that right, mate...

[harrybarracuda]

Don Robertson, Pioneering Songwriter and Pianist, Dead at 92
Award-winning writer penned hits for Elvis, Charley Pride, Les Paul and dozens of others

BY STEPHEN L. BETTS March 24, 2015



Songwriter Don Robertson, whose dozens of hits included such country, pop and R&B standards as "I Don't Hurt Anymore," "Please Help Me I'm Falling" and "Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger" — and whose tunes have been recorded by everyone from Elvis Presley to Bing Crosby — died in southern California on March 16th. According to Music Row, he had resided in the Santa Monica Mountains since 1960. Robertson was 92.

Among the songs Robertson wrote, many were early country-pop crossover hits. His first big cut, "I Really Don't Want to Know," has been recorded some 200 times, with Grand Ole Opry member Eddy Arnold sending the song to the top of the country charts in 1954. Later that year, Les Paul and Mary Ford scored their own hit with the same song, albeit on the pop charts. This pattern would repeat itself throughout Robertson's career, with artists from all genres putting their personalized stamp on his songs. Case in point: "I Don't Hurt Anymore," which was a country smash for Hank Snow as well as a Number Three R&B hit for Dinah Washington, and has since been covered by Bob Dylan, Martina McBride, Jerry Lee Lewis and Willie Nelson.

Others who recorded Robertson's songs include Johnny Cash, Rodney Crowell, Sonny James, Dottie West, Hank Thompson, Carl Smith, Skeeter Davis, Charley Pride, Della Reese and the Chordettes.

A member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, elected there in 1972, Robertson was also a recording artist in his own right. In 1956, he reached Number Six on the pop chart with "The Happy Whistler." The tune was also a Top Ten hit in the U.K. Among Robertson's compositions for other artists were a total of 15 for Elvis, including many featured on the soundtracks to Presley's films.

Although raised in Chicago, Robertson was born in late 1922 in China, where his father — an esteemed physician who'd developed the world's first blood bank five years earlier — was teaching medicine at Peking Union College. While overseas, Robertson learned piano fron his mother at age four and began composing at seven years old. His syle of piano playing, which emphasized the "slip note" technique, was later popularized on hundreds of recordings by studio musician and country legend Floyd Cramer.

Robertson has also been heard for decades playing his song "Pianjo" as the character of "Gomer," an animatronic bear featured in the opening of the Country Bear Jamboree attraction at California's Disneyland and Florida's Walt Disney World.

[harrybarracuda]

Top Gear creator dies aged 87
March 25, 2015



Derek Smith, the creator of the global smash-hit Top Gear franchise, has died. He was 87.

Smith was a producer for regional division BBC Midlands in the 1970s, based at the Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham.

According to local newspaper the Birmingham Mail, he came up with the idea for Top Gear after looking out of an office window at the Pebble Mill Car Park.

“He thought the BBC should do a motoring and car show, with items on all motoring matters such as road safety and car tests,” Smith’s son Graham told the paper.

“The name would be Top Gear.”

It was actually Graham Smith who selected the iconic Top Gear theme tune, too: his father asked him if he had any ideas and “I suggested an Allman Brothers instrumental from an album I had.

“He said ‘Yes, that will do, write down the details’ and then he went into the BBC record library to make a copy.”

Top Gear first broadcast on 22 April 1977, originally as a monthly series presented by Angela Rippon and local news man Tom Coyne. BBC bosses in London were clearly impressed though: the following year, it was networked and broadcast nationally on BBC2.

Smith remained as executive producer on the show until 1983.

[Happy As Larry]

John Renbourn dead: Pentangle founder and folk icon dies of 'suspected heart attack'

John Renbourn has passed away at the age of 70.

The folk guitarist credited with starting one of the genre’s most famous bands, Pentangle, is thought to have died at his home in Hawick in the Scottish borders after suffering a suspected heart attack.

Dave Smith, his manager, said that Renbourn was “a huge character”.

“He was always playing and teaching. That is what he loved doing and he never stopped.”

Radio DJ Cerys Matthews, who recently interviewed Renbourn on Radio 6 Music, was among those to pay tribute to the iconic musician.

[harrybarracuda]

Just adding a pic....

John Renbourn dead: Pentangle founder and folk icon dies of 'suspected heart attack'

John Renbourn has passed away at the age of 70.

The folk guitarist credited with starting one of the genre’s most famous bands, Pentangle, is thought to have died at his home in Hawick in the Scottish borders after suffering a suspected heart attack.

Dave Smith, his manager, said that Renbourn was “a huge character”.

“He was always playing and teaching. That is what he loved doing and he never stopped.”

Radio DJ Cerys Matthews, who recently interviewed Renbourn on Radio 6 Music, was among those to pay tribute to the iconic musician.

And a vid

[harrybarracuda]

This was a remarkable story - they didn't have enough fuel to get home and had no idea what reception they would get when they went down.

Brave lads all, and RIP to this one, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese for 40 months, and yet he went back to war in Korea in '51.

One of last three remaining World War II Doolittle Raiders who flew daring mission over Japan just four months after Pearl Harbor dies, aged 95
Lt. Col. Robert Hite died in Nashville after a battle with Alzheimer's disease
He was a co-pilot of a crew taht flew one of the 16 B-25 bombers that raided Tokyo in 1942

The air raid gave Americans hope in the wake of Pearl Harbor
Two of the original 80 Doolittle's Raiders are alive today, both in their 90s
By KELLY MCLAUGHLIN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 02:16, 31 March 2015 | UPDATED: 06:10, 31 March 2015



Lt. Col. Robert Hite, one of the three remaining Doolittle Raiders, died after a battle with Alzheimer's disease on Sunday, aged 95


One of the last surviving Doolittle Raiders who attacked Japan during a daring World War II mission has died, age 95.

Lt. Col. Robert Hite died on Sunday at a nursing home in Nashville after a battle with Alzheimer's disease.

He was one of three remaining Doolittle Raiders.

Hite was a co-pilot of a crew that flew one of the 16 B-25 bombers that raided Tokyo in April 1942.

Led by Lieutenant Colonel James 'Jimmy' Doolittle, the mission saw 80 airmen sent in bombers from a carrier at sea to attack military targets in Japan.

Without enough fuel to reach a safe landing point, the brave crew had to land in China and hope villagers would lead them to safety.

Though the attack only caused scattered damage, it's credited with boosting morale in the United States while shaking Japan's confidence less than five months after the country attacked Pearl Harbor.

Tom Casey, a manager for the Doolittle Raiders, said that, despite the risks, 'they all volunteered to go anyway.'

The 16 B-25 bombers, each carrying five men, dropped bombs on targets such as factory areas and military installations.

They then headed to designated airfields in mainland China realizing that they would run out of fuel, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

Three crew members died as Raiders bailed out or crash-landed their planes in China, but most were helped to safety by Chinese villagers and soldiers.

Of the eight Raiders captured by Japanese soldiers, three were executed and another died in captivity, according to Northwest Florida Daily News.

Hite was one of the men that was taken by the Japanese and was held captive for 40 months.

After being liberated by American troops in 1945, he returned to active duty six years later, in 1951 During the Korean War. He served until 1955.

Hite's son, Wallace Hite, told Fox News that his father would want to be remembered for being patriotic.

'I think he would want two things: that's the attitude we ought to have about our country, and the second is, he was doing his job,' he said.

After Hite's passing, there are only two surviving Raiders: Lt. Col. Richard 'Dick' Cole and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher.

On April 18, the 73rd anniversary of the raid, the Raiders will present the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force with a Congressional Gold Medal they will be honored with earlier in the week.

THE DOOLITTLE RAID: BOOSTING WOUNDED PRIDE AFTER PEARL HARBOR
The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, on 18 April 1942, was an air raid by the United States during World War II.

The raid, led by Lieutenant Colonel James 'Jimmy' Doolittle, caused negligible material damage to Japan, but helped to boost a wounded nation's morale in the aftermath of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

US Army Air Forces B-25B Mitchell medium bombers, with five crewmen on each were launched without fighter escort from an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

The 16 planes, loaded with one-ton bombs, took off from the aircraft carrier on less than 500 feet of runway. They had only enough fuel to drop their bombs on military targets in Japan and try to land in China with the hope that the Chinese would help them to safety.

Pilots volunteered and trained in Florida for what they only knew was 'extremely hazardous.'

Navigator Griffin, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, got top-secret briefings with pilot David Jones in Washington, just five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Once at sea, the rest learned targets - factories, plants, military facilities on mainland Japan.

They knew the uncertainties: what if the Navy task force was attacked? What defences would they face? And with B-25s unable to land on a carrier decks, could they reach friendly bases in China?

The Raiders brushed aside Doolittle's assurances that anyone was free to withdraw.

After encountering Japanese patrols, the raid launched ahead of plan, some 200 miles farther from shore for fuel-stretched bombers. Doolittle's plane took off first at 08:20 from a pitching carrier deck.

They flew low in radio silence, skimming seas and then treetops. Cole recalls the country song 'Wabash Cannonball' running through his head. He tapped his foot in time until Doolittle shot him a questioning look.

They were greeted by anti-aircraft guns and puffs of black smoke. Flak shook planes.

When they arrived at the target, Col. Doolittle ordered to open up the bomb bay doors. The bombs dropped, and the raiders 'got the heck out of there.'

The danger was just beginning. All 16 planes lacked enough fuel to reach bases and either crash-landed or ditched in dark, rough weather along China's coast south of Shanghai.

They narrowly stayed ahead of Japanese searchers, who killed villagers suspected of helping the Americans.

Eight Raiders were captured, and three executed. A fourth died in captivity. Three had died off the coast of China.

In the end, fourteen crews, except for one crewman, returned either to the United States or to American forces.

[blue]

Always thought John Lennon was a bit of a kunt for leaving her like he did , but what do i know ..


John Lennon's first wife Cynthia has died at her home in Spain at the age of 75.
Cynthia who was an artist was married to the Beatle from 1962 to 1968, and was the mother of musician Julian Lennon. She passed away at her home after a battle with cancer, a statement on Julian's website confirmed today, April 1.
"Cynthia Lennon passed away today at her home in Mallorca, Spain following a short but brave battle with cancer," the statement read.
"Her son Julian Lennon was at her bedside throughout. The family are thankful for your prayers. Please respect their privacy at this difficult time."
Born Cynthia Powell, she met John Lennon at a calligraphy class at the Liverpool College of Art in the early 1960s, some years before the Fab Four became a global phenomenon.
In 1968, John left her for the artist Yoko Ono. Cynthia later married Italian hotelier Roberto Bassanini until their divorce in 1973. Three years later, she married engineer John Twist, but divorced him in 1983.
She later changed her name back to Lennon, before marrying nightclub owner Noel Charles from 2002 until his death in 2013.

With John Lennon in 1959

[pompeysbroke]

but what do i know ..

Got that bit right

[misskit]

American Televangelist Robert Schuller Dies



American televangelist Robert Schuller, who beamed his upbeat Christian messages on faith and personal success around the world to millions of people, died Thursday at 88.

Schuller died at an elder care facility in California, two years after being diagnosed with cancer in his esophagus.

At his peak in the 1990s, Schuller's "Hour of Power" telecast had 20 million viewers in 180 countries. He preached that belief in Jesus Christ and the power of "possibility thinking" were the keys to a successful life.

But in recent years, he watched as his undertaking collapsed amid family discord and financial ruin. In 2010, his church, then led by his daughter, declared bankruptcy and the soaring glass-paned Crystal Cathedral he built in southern California was sold to the Roman Catholic Church.

American Televangelist Robert Schuller Dies

[panama hat]

In 2010, his church, then led by his daughter, declared bankruptcy and the soaring glass-paned Crystal Cathedral he built in southern California was sold to the Roman Catholic Church.

Didn't even reach the third generation . . . and sold to the Catholic Church . . . Good Grief

[Dragonfly94]

Always thought John Lennon was a bit of a kunt for leaving her like he did , but what do i know ..

Not just to leave her and treat her and his son like dirt, but to leave her for a kunt like Yoko ting tong. Some blokes are unfathomable where women are concerned.

[billy the kid]

You've heard how the scouse ladies talk, haven't you.
bit like screeching a blackboard
where you quickly put your hands over your ears.
or dive under a table.
prolly the worst accent in the UK.
Yoko being something exotic for Lennon as he started showing his arse to everybody.

[Boon Mee]

James Best, “Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane”, dies at 88



James Best, an actor best known for his role as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on the original Dukes of Hazzard, has passed away. He was 88.

[bankao dreamer]

^
Thats a shame I loved the Dukes. It wasn't the greatest TV series ever made but it was fun to watch. Cars racing around, total disregard for the law, inept cops and corrupt politicians. Reminds me a bit of this place.

[harrybarracuda]

WED, 08 APRIL 2015 AT 12:30 AM
Geoffrey Lewis Dead - Actor & Juliette Lewis' Dad Dies at 79



The actor passed away on Tuesday (April 7) in Woodland Hills, Calif. from natural causes, according to Variety.

Geoffrey made his mark with appearances in several of Clint Eastwood‘s westerns, including High Plains Drifter, Any Which Way You Can, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, and Every Which Way But Loose. He received a Golden Globe nomination for his work on the series Flo and he appeared on dozens of other programs.

Geoffrey is survived by his wife Paula Hochhalter and his ten children. We send out our thoughts and condolences to his loved ones during this difficult time.

Geoffrey Lewis Dead ? Actor & Juliette Lewis? Dad Dies at 79 | Geoffrey Lewis, Juliette Lewis, RIP : Just Jared

[palexxxx]

Cricket icon Richie Benaud, who distinguished himself first as a leg-spinning all-rounder, then as a daring Australian Test captain and later as the 'voice of cricket' in the commentary box, has died at the age of 84.
Benaud's skills, drive and determination took him to the top on and off the cricket field, and made him one of Australia's most recognised people, instantly identifiable simply as Richie.
He played 63 Tests for Australia, was the first player to score 2,000 Test runs and take 200 Test wickets, and never lost a series as Australian captain.
After hanging up his Baggy Green cap, he spent more than four decades as the king of cricket commentators, a man viewed around the world as one of the best callers, watchers and analysts of the game - and perhaps its best ambassador as well.
Benaud died after a battle with skin cancer.




Richie Benaud dead at 84 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[panama hat]

Very, very sad . . . Lying by the beach or pool listening to his commentary . . . and laughing at Tony 'looks like a cricket bat with holes' Greig was a great way to waste hours if one couldn't be at the SCG

RiP

[DaveS]

Damn, Richie gone. Sure gonna miss his commentary.
Hope all the IPL players are wearing black armbands in respect.

[Mathos]

'Spend, spend, spend' pools winner Viv Nicholson dies

Legendary football pools winner Viv Nicholson, who shot to fame when she said she would "spend, spend, spend" her £152,000 winnings in 1961, has died aged 79.

Mrs Nicholson and her husband Keith, from Castleford, West Yorkshire, took just three years to spend their prize money - equivalent to £3.5 million today.

Her son Howard said she had died following a long fight against dementia after developing the condition in 2009.

In a statement posted on her website, he said: "We are saddened to announce the death of our much loved mum, Viv Nicholson.

"After suffering with dementia for five years, she died on April 11 at Pinderfields Hospital with her sons at her side.

"Viv was a one-off in all ways - a loving and loved mother, a glamorous great grandmother and a friend to many.

A West End musical celebrating Mrs Nicholson's life - named after her trademark catchphrase - premiered in 1999.

Mrs Nicholson was a 25-year-old blonde liquorice factory worker when she and her miner husband won their fortune.

They splashed the cash on cars, jewellery, furs, champagne, parties and a sprawling ranch-style home.

But their fairytale story came to an end when Mr Nicholson was killed in a car crash in 1965 and a huge tax bill left Mrs Nicholson bankrupt.

After that her life spiralled out of control as she struggled with alcohol and depression.

In the years that followed she moved to Malta but was deported for fighting a policeman.

She got a job singing Hey Big Spender at a Manchester strip club - only to be fired for refusing to bare all.

And she had three more marriages, with one husband dying in another car smash, and another from an overdose.

Her son today requested donations to Dementia UK in her memory.




RIP Viv. You were quite a character.

[Looper]

Germany's most famous writer, Guenter Grass, best known for his 1959 novel The Tin Drum but whose reputation was tarnished by his admission he had served in Hitler's Waffen SS, has died aged 87, his publishers say.
The Nobel laureate died in a hospital in the northern city of Luebeck, the Steidl publishing house said on Twitter.


His publishers gave no details of the cause of death.
A broad-shouldered man, Grass spurned the German tradition of keeping a cool intellectual distance, insisting that a writer's duty was to be at the frontline of moral and political debate.

Grass followed his debut and best-known novel The Tin Drum with Cat and Mouse and Dog Years, all dealing with the rise of Nazism in his hometown of Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland.

For many, he was the voice of a German generation that came of age in World War II and bore the burden of their parents' guilt for the atrocities of the Nazis.

He won a string of international awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1999 and continued to publish into his 80s.
Grass's works have a strong political dimension and are considered part of the German literary movement dealing with "coming to terms with the past" but he was also not averse to commenting on, and stirring, controversy beyond his nation's borders.

He likened the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that appeared in 2005 in a Danish newspaper to Nazi caricatures of Jews and criticised former United States president George W Bush for using religious terms to describe his "war on terror".

The novelist, poet, playwright and sculptor, often seen chomping on his pipe and sporting a walrus moustache, courted controversy with a provocative poem that painted Israel as the Middle East's biggest threat to peace.
The prose-poem entitled What Must Be Said, published in 2012, voiced fears that a nuclear-armed Israel could mount a "first strike" against Iran, triggering accusations of anti-Semitism and a ban from Israel.

After years of urging Germany to come to terms with its World War II past, the outcry further darkened the shadow cast by his 2006 bombshell admission that he had served in the Nazis' elite Waffen SS after being conscripted into the corps as a teenager.

Grass remained defiant in the face of the backlash over the poem but admitted he found the accusations of anti-Semitism "hurtful".

Grass against ideologies that set 'absolute objectives'

Grass was born on October 16, 1927 in the Baltic port city of Danzig to parents who had a grocery shop.

A passionate visual artist who also studied sculpture and graphics, Grass's work and psyche were marked by Germany's past.

His first three books, known as the Danzig Trilogy, are set in the ethnically-mixed region of his childhood.

Danzig was handed to Poland after the war, when its ethnic German population fled or were expelled.

The Tin Drum was adapted into an Oscar-winning film by Volker Schloendorff.

His 2002 novel Crabwalk also deals with the effect of the past on the present.

Grass defined himself in a 1969 interview as a humanist allergic to ideologies of any kind "to the point of wanting to attack any belief that claims to set absolute objectives".

Guenter Grass, German Nobel prize-winning author, dies aged 87 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

[harrybarracuda]

But their fairytale story came to an end when Mr Nicholson was killed in a car crash in 1965 and a huge tax bill left Mrs Nicholson bankrupt.

<snip>

And she had three more marriages, with one husband dying in another car smash, and another from an overdose.

Not that lucky at all then really.

[harrybarracuda]

Director Richard Bare dies, aged 101

12:25 PM Tuesday Apr 14, 2015
Director Richard Bare has died at the age of 101.



The Green Acres director passed away at his home in Newport Beach, California, on March 28, according to the New York Times.

Bare was best known for his work on TV shows including Maverick, Twilight Zone and Cheyenne.

He is also credited with launching actor James Garner's career by casting him in Cheyenne after meeting him in a Hollywood bar.

In addition to his TV work, Bare also wrote the book The Film Director.

Director Richard Bare dies, aged 101 - Entertainment - NZ Herald News