The RIP Famous Person Thread

[misskit]

Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dead at 90

Walter Cunningham, the last surviving astronaut from the first successful crewed space mission in NASA's Apollo program, died Tuesday in Houston. He was 90.


NASA confirmed Cunningham’s death in a statement but did not include its cause. Spokespersons for the agency and Cunningham’s wife, Dot Cunningham, did not immediately respond to questions.


Cunningham was one of three astronauts aboard the 1968 Apollo 7 mission, an 11-day spaceflight that beamed live television broadcasts as they orbited Earth, paving the way for the moon landing less than a year later.


Cunningham, then a civilian, crewed the mission with Navy Capt. Walter M. Schirra and Donn F. Eisele, an Air Force major. Cunningham was the lunar module pilot on the space flight, which launched from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Florida, on Oct. 11 and splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean south of Bermuda.


NASA said Cunningham, Eisele and Schirra' flew a near perfect mission. Their spacecraft performed so well that the agency sent the next crew, Apollo 8, to orbit the moon as a prelude to the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969.

MORE Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham dead at 90 - ABC News

[prawnograph]

Nate Thayer

Andrew McGregor Marshall notified this by twitter yesterday but reluctant to quote from him
Seems it's official now, from Washington Post today

Nate Thayer, journalist who landed Pol Pot interview, dies at 62
January 4, 2023 at 6:46 p.m. EST

Nate Thayer, an American journalist who chased stories of conflict across the jungles of Southeast Asia and was the last Western correspondent to interview the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal leader Pol Pot, has died at his home in Falmouth, Mass. He was 62.



Robert Thayer said his brother’s body was found Jan. 3, but it was not immediately clear when he died. Mr. Thayer wrote last year that he was in declining health, including developing sepsis after foot surgery and was told by doctors he “will never walk again.”

During decades of reporting beginning in the late 1980s, Mr. Thayer cultivated a reputation as a freelancer willing to endure hardships and risks to track down far-flung stories for outlets including Soldier of Fortune magazine, the Far Eastern Economic Review, the Associated Press and The Washington Post.

His reporting on Pol Pot’s final months remained the journalistic centerpiece of Mr. Thayer’s career — a major journalistic coup that drew international attention. His work also added important historical details to the “killing fields” legacy of the Khmer Rouge’s 1975-1979 rule. An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians — intellectuals, doctors, dissidents and many others — lost their lives as the regime attempted to impose a radical agrarian Communist order.

“He illuminated a page of history that would have been lost to the world had he not spent years in the Cambodian jungle,” noted an award bestowed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in 1998.

Mr. Thayer had one more exclusive concerning Pol Pot: He was back at the Anlong Veng camp a day after Pol Pot died in April 1998 and took photos of the body before it was cremated.

His reporting became the only independent confirmation of Pol Pot’s death. “He’s dead,” Thayer told The Post in a telephone interview at the time. “That was Pol Pot. There was no question that was Pol Pot.”

Also: Bangkok Post

[helge]

Fay Weldon died the other day.

Feminist and author ...'She- Devil'

[harrybarracuda]

^ From a fascinating letter to the NYT editor:

March 24, 1993
Your March 7 report that arms are now flowing from Cambodia to Thailand shows part of the chilling story of Bangkok's collaboration with Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge since 1978. Last Dec. 17, the Far Eastern Economic Review published excerpts from a classified United Nations report that asserted Thailand's military forces were operating in the Khmer Rouge zones of Cambodia in violation of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement.

Thailand assists the Khmer Rouge in other ways. It refuses to allow United Nations monitors on the Thai side of the border to investigate Khmer Rouge breaches of the United Nations ban on the export of logs from Cambodia.

For 15 years, Thai military dictatorships have provided invaluable aid to Pol Pot's genocidal army. This aid has included sanctuary on Thai soil, delivery of Chinese arms, diversion to the Khmer Rouge of international aid intended for Cambodian civilian refugees and diplomatic support, as well as the two-way weapons trading and other business links such as the purchase of Cambodian gemstones from the Khmer Rouge.

Two years ago Suchinda Krapayoon, Thai military dictator, described Pol Pot as "a nice guy." In 1985, Siddhi Savetsila, Foreign Minister of Thailand, called Pol Pot's deputy Son Sen "a very good man."

Only the elected government of Chatchai Choonhavon from 1988 to 1991 attempted to distance Thailand from Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. Other Thai regimes, including the current civilian one, will bear direct responsibility if the genocidists return to power in Cambodia.

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/03/24/opinion/l-thailand-bears-guilt-for-khmer-rouge-934393.html

[david44]

Ciao Luca

Gianluca Vialli dead: Chelsea legend dies aged 58 after cancer battle

Gianluca Vialli has died aged 58.

By SAM SMITH
09:42, Fri, Jan 6, 2023 | UPDATED: 09:56, Fri, Jan 6, 2023

2

Gianluca Vialli has died aged 58


Chelsea icon Gianluca Vialli has died aged 58, five years after first being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The former striker played for and managed the Blues after enjoying a successful career in his homeland of Italy.

Vialli scored 40 goals in 88 appearances for Chelsea between 1996 and 1999. He then went on to manage the club and won three trophies in the pre-Roman Abramovich era.
Initially taking over as player-manager in early 1998, Vialli guided Chelsea to the League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup in his first few months in charge. He then won the FA Cup in 2000.

Tributes by Vialli's former club poured in after his death was confirmed on Friday morning. Sampdoria, for whom the former Italy international made 328 appearances, tweeted a broken heart emoji alongside a picture of their ex-player and the gutting words: "Ciao Luca."
Vialli was initially cleared of his pancreatic cancer in 2020 and took up a role with the Italian national team alongside his former team-mate Roberto Mancini. He was in the dugout for Italy's triumphant Euro 2020 campaign, in which they beat England on penalties in the final.

[malmomike77]

^ a thoroughly nice chap, played for the wrong team but i won't gold that against him. RIP Giani

[harrybarracuda]

Terminator actor Earl Boen, who played the villainous Dr. Peter Silberman, dies at 81



Earl Boen, a prolific voice and character actor best known for his performance as the villainous Dr. Peter Silberman in The Terminator films, has reportedly died at age 81.

Per TMZ and Variety, the actor died in Hawaii on Thursday. Although an official cause of death remains unclear, a friend of Boen and his family told Variety that he was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer this past fall.

While he's widely recognized as the infamous criminal psychologist from 1984's Terminator — a role he reprised in 1991's Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 2003's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, and via archival footage in 2019's Terminator: Dark Fate — Boen appeared in over 250 different films, television series, radio programs, and video games throughout his decades-long career in entertainment.

On the small screen, Boen could be seen in popular television staples like 1977's Wonder Woman starring Lynda Carter and the '80s sit-com It's A Living, as well as spotlight performances on Family Ties, Punky Brewster, Who's the Boss, Mama's Family, Matlock, Seinfeld, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and more. He announced his retirement from onscreen acting in 2003.

As a voice actor, Boen also appeared in numerous hit animated series, including A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, The Addams Family, Batman: The Animated Series, Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Zorro, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Kim Possible. He also lent his voice to multiple video game series, including the World of Warcraft, Tales of Monkey Island, Psychonauts, Call of Duty, Metal Gear Solid, and Baldur's Gate franchises.

Terminator actor Earl Boen dead at 81 | EW.com

[harrybarracuda]

Si Litvinoff, the visionary producer behind Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and the Nicolas Roeg-directed films The Man Who Fell to Earth and the Australian New Wave classic Walkabout, has died. He was 93.




Litvinoff died peacefully Dec. 26 in Los Angeles, his friend Shade Rupe announced. Rupe interviewed him for the Blu-ray release of Litvinoff’s groundbreaking 1968 film The Queen, which revolves around a national drag queen contest.

Litvinoff also produced the London-set All the Right Noises (1970), starring Olivia Hussey, Tom Bell and Judy Carne, and executive produced a Roeg-directed documentary about the 1972 Glastonbury Fayre music festival that featured performances by Traffic, Fairport Convention, Melanie and Arthur Brown.

In 1965, Litvinoff optioned Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange for a reported $500 and sent the book to Kubrick. While paying for screenplays by Burgess, Terry Southern and Michael Cooper, the producer sought Mick Jagger to star in it, all while Kubrick refused to commit to the project.

Kubrick only signed on after Litvinoff raised $1 million and went after Roeg to direct. The dystopian classic, starring Malcolm McDowell, finally was released by Warner Bros. in 1971 and was nominated for four Oscars, including best picture.

Litvinoff and Roeg, however, did collaborate on Walkabout (1971), which told the story of two white schoolchildren (Jenny Agutter and Luc Roeg, the director’s son) who get lost in the Australian Outback but are saved by an Indigenous Australian (David Gulpilil).

For The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Litvinoff and Roeg gave David Bowie his first big shot at the movies, with the rock star portraying a humanoid alien who crash-lands in New Mexico and becomes a businessman hooked on alcohol, sex and television.

“Nic had been thinking about Peter O’Toole. I was enthusiastic about David in the music world and I loved his record ‘Space Oddity,'” Litvinoff recalled.

“But it wasn’t until [ICM agent] Maggie [Abbott] provided us with the documentary Cracked Actor that we were both excited about David and knew that he was the only person to play the part.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/mo...th-1235292574/

[harrybarracuda]

Five-time Oscar nominated cinematographer Owen Roizman, who shot landmark films including “The French Connection,” “The Exorcist,” “Network” and “Tootsie,” has died. He was 86.




The American Society of Cinematographers confirmed Saturday that Roizman had died after a long illness.

New York-born Roizman, who died at his home in Los Angeles, was given an honorary Oscar for his career achievements in 2017, having retired from the film business in the 1990s without yet taking home one of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gold statuettes, despite the multiple nominations.

Roizman was known for his collaborations with Sydney Pollack and William Friedkin. His film work included “Play It Again, Sam,” “The Heartbreak Kid,” “Three Days of the Condor” and “Wyatt Earp.”

He received his first Oscar nomination for 1971’s “The French Connection” — his second film — which starred Gene Hackman as a violent police detective. After filming the influential Friedkin-directed neo-noir crime thriller, including its famed car chase sequence, Roizman became known for his “gritty” documentary style, a designation he found amusing, given the wide variety of genres in which he excelled.

“Immediately after ‘The French Connection,’ I got labeled as a gritty New York street photographer, which I thought was very funny because I had never shot anything like ‘The French Connection’ before that,” Roizman told the Los Angeles Times in a 2017 interview. “I got a kick out of that. My primary goal was always just to serve the story and to tell the story visually the best way I knew how.”

Roizman, born in Brooklyn on Sept. 22, 1936, grew up with camerawork in his blood.

His father, Sol, was a cinematographer for Fox Movietone News. His uncle Morrie was a film editor. After graduating from Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, he began his career as an assistant cameraman in commercials and worked his way up to cinematographer.

He got his break in a low-budget 1970 film, “Stop,” that was seen by almost no one — except for some key people — Friedkin and “The French Connection’s” producer Phil D'Antoni, who liked his work.

“The French Connection” was notable for its use of available outdoor light, giving it its real-life feel. The seminal chase scene veers through the mean streets of New York as hard-nosed Det. Popeye Doyle (an Oscar-winning Hackman) commandeers a civilian car and tries to keep up with the hit man who is attempting an escape on an elevated train.

“It was done in two different ways,” Roizman told The Times in 2011. “Three cameras were used inside the car, including a camera on the dashboard that would look out through the windshield and one over the driver’s shoulder. From the outside, we had five cameras. We broke it down to five stunts, and the rest of it was just bits and pieces. For each of the stunts we had five cameras set up at different angles to cover it all.”

Roizman told American Cinematographer that “the biggest problem there was trying to match because the light was changing constantly. As we’d run along the track, another train would pass and block out the light. Or we’d go between tall buildings and that would cut down the light in the middle of a scene.”

His work on Friedkin’s 1973 film, “The Exorcist,” is remembered for bringing a lived-in realism to the supernatural horror genre.

One of the challenges of filming the climatic exorcism scene was to convey the freezing temperature of the child’s bedroom by getting the actors’ breath to show onscreen, he said to American Cinematographer.

To get the believable effect, the filmmakers created a replica of the room and refrigerated it.

“A system was developed that could refrigerate the room quickly to any temperature from zero to 20 below,” Roizman said. “The breath showed up fine at zero, but Friedkin wanted the actors to really feel the cold because he felt that would help their acting. An actor on his knees for 15 minutes at 20 below zero is really going to feel cold. It worked out very well.”

The film earned Roizman his second Oscar nod.

He moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1976, later establishing his own TV commercial production company, Roizman & Associates.

His other Oscar-nominated work spanned several decades, including Sidney Lumet’s TV news satire “Network” (1976), Pollack’s Dustin Hoffman comedy “Tootsie” (1982) and Lawrence Kasdan’s western “Wyatt Earp” (1994). “The French Connection,” “The Exorcist,” “Network” and “Tootsie” were all nominated for best picture as well. “The French Connection” won.

In 1997, he received a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Cinematographers.

He said he never regretted turning down any film — even “Jaws,” the industry-changing Steven Spielberg summer blockbuster from 1975.

“We spoke for maybe three hours on the phone, and I really liked him — and I still to this day love the guy,” Roizman said.

“But what he didn’t know is that I was thinking to myself the whole time, as he was describing the story to me, ‘Jesus, a shark terrorizing a town on Long Island — that means going on a boat a lot.’ I get seasick. So that didn’t sound too inviting to me. So I turned it down really for that reason.”

He is survived by his wife, Mona Lindholm and his son, Eric Roizman, who pursued his own career behind the camera, working on “Wyatt Earp” with his father, in addition to other pictures.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...her-dies-at-86

[DrWilly]

A dead pedo

Cardinal George Pell, former Vatican finances chief and Australia'''s top-ranking Catholic, dies in Rome aged 81 - ABC News

[DrWilly]

And the former King of Greece

Former king of Greece, Constantine II, dies at 82 - ABC News

[TizMe]

A dead pedo

Cardinal George Pell, former Vatican finances chief and Australia'''s top-ranking Catholic, dies in Rome aged 81 - ABC News

Occasionally, I wish I believed in Hell.

[helge]

He was cleared by the supreme court

Just saying

[DrWilly]

He was cleared by the supreme court

Just saying

The court sometimes makes mistakes.

[harrybarracuda]

He was cleared by the supreme court

Just saying

That's because it's packed with bead rattlers.

[helge]

The court sometimes makes mistakes.

They do or can't lift the burden of proving guilt, as they say

That's because it's packed with bead rattlers.

Disagree with Wilson then ?

[KWAN]

Legendary rock guitarist Jeff Beck dies.
Heart full of soul: the maverick genius of Jeff Beck, the ‘guitarist’s guitarist’ | Music | The Guardian

[harrybarracuda]

Such a sickener. One of the greats.

Jeff Beck - Discography

[harrybarracuda]

Occasionally, I wish I believed in Hell.

[HermantheGerman]

Legendary rock guitarist Jeff Beck dies.
Heart full of soul: the maverick genius of Jeff Beck, the ‘guitarist’s guitarist’ | Music | The Guardian

Just a simple guitar virtuoso

[harrybarracuda]

Lisa Marie Presley, only child of Elvis, dies aged 54




Singer Lisa Marie Presley, the only child of rock and roll legend Elvis, has died, her mother has said in a statement.

The 54-year-old suffered a cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, California, on Thursday morning.

Her mother, Priscilla Presley, said: "It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us.

"She was the most passionate, strong and loving woman I have ever known."

It followed an earlier statement in which the 77-year-old asked people to "keep her and our family in your prayers".

She said her daughter had been "rushed to hospital", with paramedics called shortly before 10.40am.

Presley's family, including Priscilla and daughter Riley Keough, were pictured outside a hospital in Los Angeles before her death was announced.

Her cardiac arrest came just two days after she attended the Golden Globes in Beverly Hills, where she celebrated Austin Butler winning best actor in a drama film for playing her father in the biopic Elvis.

She gave interviews on the red carpet, where she told Entertainment Tonight she had been left stunned by the star's "mind-blowing" performance.

And just last weekend, Presley was at her father's old Graceland Mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, to mark the anniversary of his birth on 8 January 1935.

Elvis, widely considered to be the greatest rock and roll artist in history, died on 16 August 1977, aged just 42.

His daughter was nine years old at the time.

Lisa Marie Presley followed in her father's footsteps by pursuing a music career, starting in 2003 with her debut album: To Whom It May Concern.

It charted in the top 10 on the US Billboard album chart, as did follow-up record Now What in 2005.

Fans had to wait seven years for her third album, Storm And Grace, which released to positive reviews.

Her solo career bad begun eight years after she appeared in her then-husband Michael Jackson's music video for the 1995 song You Are Not Alone.

Presley's marriage to Jackson ended in divorce in 1996.

It was her second marriage, having been married to musician Danny Keough from 1988 to 1994.

They had two children together - daughter Riley Keough, who became an actress and model, and son Benjamin - and remained close friends.

She got married to Jackson within three weeks of divorcing Keough.

Her third marriage was to actor Nicolas Cage, which lasted from 2002 until a divorce in 2004.

Presley married again in 2006, to her guitarist and producer Michael Lockwood.

She filed for divorce 10 years later, and it was finalised in 2021.

Lisa Marie Presley, only child of Elvis, dies aged 54 | Ents & Arts News | Sky News

[misskit]

Robbie Bachman, drummer of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, dead at 69

Robbie Bachman – the drummer of Canadian rock band Bachman-Turner Overdrive – has died at age 69, his brother and bandmate Randy Bachman announced via Twitter on Thursday.


“Another sad departure. The pounding beat behind BTO, my little brother Robbie has joined Mum, Dad & brother Gary on the other side. Maybe Jeff Beck needs a drummer! He was an integral cog in our rock ‘n’ roll machine and we rocked the world together,” Bachman said alongside a black and white photo of the band.

Born in Winnipeg, Canada, Robin “Robbie” Bachman founded the band Brave Belt in 1971, alongside Randy and Chad Allan, both of whom had left the band The Guess Who a year earlier. They were later joined by bassist Fred Turner and recorded two albums.


After Allan left Brave Belt in 1972 and another Bachman brother, Tim, joined, the band renamed itself Bachman-Turner Overdrive and it was in this incarnation that they found widespread success.

The band’s self-titled debut was released in 1973, followed later the same year by “Bachman-Turner Overdrive II,” which contained the hits “Let It Ride” and “Takin’ Care of Business.” Both these songs were later used in movie soundtracks, featuring in “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues” and Will Ferrell’s “The Campaign,” respectively.


Bachman-Turner Overdrive released its most popular album, “Not Fragile,” in 1974. The LP topped the US album chart and produced the number one single “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet,” as well as “Roll on Down the Highway,” co-written by Robbie Bachman and Turner.

The group temporarily disbanded in 1979, but Robbie reunited with his former bandmates in 1988 and they toured until 1991.


Bachman-Turner Overdrive was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2014.

Robbie Bachman, drummer of Bachman-Turner Overdrive, dead at 69 | CNN

[Barty]

LAS VEGAS -- Robbie Knievel, an American stunt performer who set records with daredevil motorcycle jumps following the tire tracks of his thrill-seeking father -- including at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1989 and a Grand Canyon chasm a decade later -- has died in Nevada, his brother said. He was 60.

Robbie Knievel died of pancreatic cancer early Friday at a hospice in Reno, Kelly Knievel said.

Robbie Knievel, daredevil son of Evel Knievel, dies at 60

[Iceman123]

^

Very sad, the passing of his father was the first post on this thread

[harrybarracuda]

^

Very sad, the passing of his father was the first post on this thread

I'm just surprised they both managed to die of natural causes.