The RIP Famous Person Thread

[S Landreth]

Gina Lollobrigida, Italian star of the 1950s and 60s, dies aged 95

Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian actor once called “the most beautiful woman in the world”, has died at the age of 95. Corriere della Sera reported the news, saying she had been “hospitalised for some time”.

Through the 1950s and 60s, Lollobrigida was one of the world’s most desired performers and starred in a large number of European and American films opposite many of Hollywood’s leading men of the day.

Born in 1927 in Subiaco, in the mountains east of Rome, she was the daughter of a furniture maker. In her teenage years she did some modelling and entered beauty contests, and in 1947 placed third in the Miss Italia pageant. On her entry form for that competition, she wrote that she had a talent for acting but that she wanted to do something serious with her skills.

After a series of roles in European films, including a Bafta-winning turn in Bread, Love and Dreams, it was Lollobrigida’s performance in 1953’s Beat the Devil opposite Humphrey Bogart that brought her international fame and millions of admirers.

“La Lollo” also caught the eye of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who had spotted publicity photographs of her and invited her to Hollywood for a screen test where he repeatedly tried to seduce her, despite the fact she had married Milko Škofič, a Slovenian doctor, a year earlier.

“Time and time he tried to get me!” Lollobrigida recalled in an interview with Vanity Fair. “But he didn’t succeed … there was just too much difference between us. I said to him, ‘If you lose all your money, then perhaps I’ll marry you.’ Maybe he was surprised that there was one person who wasn’t interested in his money.”

Her commercial peak came in the mid to late 1950s, when she starred in Solomon and Sheba, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beautiful But Dangerous, the original title of which – La donna più bella del mondo – presented her as “the most beautiful woman in the world”.

Her fame was also such that in the 1960s she had a new cultivar of curly-leafed lettuce, the lollo rosso, named in her honour – although accounts vary over whether it was a reference to her tight, curly hair or the frilly petticoats she was often seen wearing.

Lollobrigida and Škofič divorced in 1971 and she largely withdrew from acting and focused on photography, publishing several collections. Her subjects included Henry Kissinger, Yuri Gagarin, Grace Kelly and many other notable people. She also secured an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

In 1999, Lollobrigida ran unsuccessfully for the European parliament representing former Italian prime minister Romano Prodi’s Democrats, but did not seem especially enthusiastic.

“I’ve never been involved in politics,” she said at the time, “but when I got the offer I said ‘yes’ immediately … It’s only afterward that I thought about why this was a good thing. I don’t know how many votes I need. I don’t know anything.”

Lollobrigida is survived by her son, Milko, and grandson, Dimitri.

[david44]

Gina Lollobrigida RIP She single handedly boosted pocket pack Kleenex globally in 1950s

Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, one of the biggest stars of European cinema in the 1950s and '60s, has died at the age of 95.


Often described as "the most beautiful woman in the world", her films included Crossed Swords, the Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beautiful But Dangerous.


She co-starred alongside the likes of Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Rock Hudson and Errol Flynn.


Her career faded in the 1960s and she moved into photography and politics.


IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,Italy's culture minister paid tribute, saying: "Her charm will remain eternal."

Nicknamed Lo Lollo, she was one of the last surviving icons of the glory days of film, who Bogart said "made Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple".


Movie mogul Howard Hughes showered her with marriage proposals. Off camera, she enjoyed a feud with fellow Italian star Sophia Loren.



Culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano wrote on Twitter: "Farewell to a diva of the silver screen, protagonist of more than half a century of Italian cinema history. Her charm will remain eternal."


She died in a Rome clinic, her former lawyer Giulia Citani told the Reuters news agency.


IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,Gina Lollobrigida - at the age of 90 - performed on Italy's version of Strictly Come Dancing in 2018

Colourful life story


Luigina Lollobrigida was born on 4 July, 1927. The daughter of a furniture manufacturer, Gina spent her teenage years avoiding wartime bombing raids before studying sculpture at Rome's Academy of Fine Arts.


A talent scout offered her an audition at Cinecitta - then the largest film studio in Europe and Italy's thriving "Hollywood on the Tiber".


Lollobrigida wasn't keen. "I refused when they offered me my first role," she recalled. "So, they said they would pay me a thousand lire. I told them my price was one million lire, thinking that would put a stop to the whole thing. But they said yes!"


IMAGE SOURCE,KITTI BOLOGNESI
Image caption,Gina Lollobrigida (3rd from left in white two-piece suit) taking part in the 1947 Miss Italia contest

In 1947, she entered the Miss Italia beauty pageant - a competition that launched many notable careers - and came third. Two years later, she married a Slovenian doctor, Milko Skofic.



Skofic took some bikini-clad publicity shots of his new - and still relatively unknown - wife. Six thousand miles away in Hollywood, the world's richest man sat up.


Infatuation


Hughes had just taken control of a major studio. He was more than 20 years older than Lollobrigida and famous for a string of affairs with the most glamorous women of the age - including Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner.


He tracked Lollobrigida down and offered a screen test. She accepted, expecting her husband to accompany her to America. On the day of departure, only one of the tickets Hughes had promised showed up.


IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,Gina Lollobrigida leaning on a mirror in 1950

Hughes had divorce lawyers waiting at the airport. She was installed in a luxury hotel, given a secretary and a chauffeur, and bombarded with proposals.


He had prepared everything. Even the screen test turned out to be a scene about the end of a marriage.


The trip lasted nearly three months. She saw him daily - fending off pass after pass. To avoid the press, they often ate at cheap restaurants or in the back of his car.



Although the behaviour was clearly abusive, Lollobrigida said she enjoyed the attention. "He was very tall, very interesting," she later recalled. "Much more interesting than my husband."


IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,Howard Hughes lured Lollobrigida to Hollywood and inundated her with proposals of marriage

Before she departed for Rome, Hughes presented her with a seven-year contract. It made it hugely expensive for any other US studio to hire her. "I signed it because I wanted to go home," she said.


Hughes didn't give up. His lawyers pursued her as far as the Algerian desert - where she was making a film. Her husband was understanding about the decade-long infatuation. He'd even play the lawyers at tennis.


Stardom


Avoiding Hollywood, Gina worked in France and Italy - making films such as The Wayward Wife and Bread, Love and Dreams.


Her first English-language picture - opposite Bogart in John Huston's Beat the Devil - was shot on the Amalfi coast, and was the beginning of a series of starring roles alongside the world's most glamorous men.


IMAGE SOURCE,MOVIE POSTER IMAGE ART
Image caption,Lollobrigida played the manipulative Lola - at the centre of a love triangle with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis - in Trapeze.

In Crossed Swords it was Flynn; in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Antony Quinn. She realised her celebrity was global when 60,000 turned up to greet her in Argentina. They included the country's dashing president, Juan Peron.


She won awards for Beautiful But Dangerous - as an orphan opposite one of Italy's finest actors, Vittorio Gassman. She played a manipulative circus performer in Trapeze, with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.


She disliked Sinatra, with whom she starred in Never So Few - a wartime romance shot in Myanmar and Thailand. He was late on set and got shirty when she complained. "Zero sense of humour," she said.


IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,Lollobrigida had little time for Frank Sinatra, her leading man in Never So Few

And disaster struck her next project. Two-thirds of Solomon and Sheba had been filmed when her co-star, Tyrone Power, had a heart attack filming a sword fight in Madrid.


One version of the story says Power died in Lollobrigida's car on the way to hospital. Another suggests he passed away in his dressing room and was "walked" out of the studio - a scarf tied round his jaw to stop it sagging.


Whatever the truth, Power's scenes were reshot with Yul Brynner. The film shocked late-1950s Hollywood with an orgy scene, albeit one where all were fully clothed.


Rock Hudson and Sophia Loren


In 1960, she moved to Canada - for lower taxes and a promise of legal status for her Yugoslav husband. One magazine gushed that it was "the most fetching argument ever advanced for liberal immigration policies".


Her film career was slowing but there was still time to work with her favourite actor: Rock Hudson.


IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,Rock Hudson and Lollobrigida were nominated for Golden Globes for their performances in Come September

They appeared together in romantic comedies Come September and Strange Bedfellows. After a lifetime fending off Hughes and most of Hollywood's finest, Hudson's failure to make a pass came as a shock.


"I knew right away that Rock Hudson was gay, when he did not fall in love with me," she told one reporter.


Her feud with Loren was coming on nicely. Egged on by her husband - the film producer Carlo Ponti - Loren had claimed she was "bustier" than Lollobrigida.


Gina hit back, saying Sophia could play peasants but never ladies. "We are as different," she said, "as a fine racehorse and a goat."


IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,Lollobrigida (right) and Sophia Loren (left) pictured at the Berlin Film festival in 1954 with a third actress, Yvonne de Carlo

Lollobrigida's brief affair with heart transplant pioneer Christian Barnard spelled the end of her marriage. Divorce had just been legalised in Italy and she took early advantage.


"A woman at 20 is like ice," she declared. "At 30 she is warm. At 40 she is hot. We are going up as men are going down." She was certainly not short of admirers.


Prince Rainier of Monaco was one, in spite of his marriage to Grace Kelly. "He would make passes at me in front of her, in their home," she claimed. "Obviously, I said no!"


Her last major film - alongside David Niven in King, Queen, Knave - came in 1972. There were tantrums on set and the production was halted three times for mysterious "eye problems".


Lollobrigida took a few parts in American TV series - including Falcon's Crest and Love Boat - but then re-invented herself as an artist.


Castro and court cases


This was no ageing film star vanity project. Lollobrigida was good.


She donned a disguise to take award-winning photographs of her native Italy and saw her huge marble and bronze sculptures entered at an International Expo in Seville.


IMAGE SOURCE,MARCO DI LAURO
Image caption,Lollobrigida reinvented herself as a sculptor and photojournalist

She scooped the world with a rare photoshoot and interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.


"We spent 12 days together," she said. "He didn't interest me as a political leader but as a man. He realised that I hadn't gone there to attack him and he readily accepted me."


There was work for Unicef, the United Nations and an unsuccessful run for a seat in the European Parliament. She remained active in politics - as recently as last year, she stood for the Italian Senate, but was unsuccessful.


Younger men


Despite all her suitors, the "most beautiful woman in the world" never quite found Mr Right.


"My experience," she said, "has been that, when I have found the right person, he has run away from me. Important men want to be the star - they don't want to be in your shadow."


Disastrously, she met Javier Rigau y Rafols, a charming Spaniard who was 34 years younger. They announced their engagement in 2006 - but soon called it off, citing frenzied press attention.


IMAGE SOURCE,VANINA LUCCHESI
Image caption,Lollobrigida took legal action against her former boyfriend, Javier Rigau y Rafols

Rigau, however, went ahead with the wedding - allegedly using an imposter to play Lollobrigida. According to her account, she only discovered her marriage by chance when she found documents on the internet.


She took legal action; Rigau produced witnesses. He insisted Lollobrigida had agreed to marry him by proxy using a power of attorney she had once granted.


She lost the ensuing court case, but the marriage was annulled in 2019 with the blessing of the Pope.


Lollobrigida fought another legal action against her son Milko, who had asked for control of his mother's business dealings. Now in her 80s, the action was thought to have been prompted by her new relationship with a handsome man in his 20s.


In later life, she became reclusive. But - from time to time - she would hold court at her huge villa, with its flock of white storks, on Rome's ancient Appian Way. She would glide down her magnificent staircase, bedecked in emeralds, to greet visiting journalists with her young lover. It was Sunset Boulevard come to life.


"I am only a film star," she had a habit of saying in a full Norma Desmond purr, "because the public wanted me to be one."


Gina Lollobrigida lived to an age at which memories of her glory days - as part of movie world royalty in the '50s and '60s - have grown dim. Few of her films are now regarded as classics.


But - in her time - she was one of the greats. Her life story was as exotic as any of the roles she played.


And the maxim by which she lived, she said, was simple: "We are all born to die. The difference is the intensity with which we choose to live."

[helge]

David Crosby died 81 years old

[misskit]

That is sad news.

Famed Rock Singer David Crosby Dead at 81

Shock: it’s the end of Crosby, Stills, and Nash as David Crosby has died at age 81. His wife says he had a long illness but he kept it to himself. Crosby was a regular presence on Twitter until recently. (Actually his most recent Tweets were yesterday.)


Sources tell me Crosby died from COVID. He was most likely vaccinated, but may have had co-morbidities.


Crosby was known for his famous harmonies with the Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash. He warred with all of them including Neil Young.


His wife issued a statement: “It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away. He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Although he is no longer here with us, his humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us. His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music. Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and those he touched. We will miss him dearly. At this time, we respectfully and kindly ask for privacy as we grieve and try to deal with our profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers.”

MORE Famed Rock Singer David Crosby Dead at 81, Founding Member of the Byrds, and CSN, Sources Say Cause Was COVID (Exclusive) | Showbiz411

[Happy As Larry]

[prawnograph]

Many versions of Almost Cut My Hair on YouTube, but this would be my favourite, Crosby, Stills Nash and Young from Farm Aid 2000

Turn it up...



David Crosby 81, August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023
Stephen Stills 78
Graham Nash 80
Neil Young 77

[Happy As Larry]

^ Yes. Just a great song. I put a version from the 1974 CSNY tour on the "What are you listening to right now thread".
I saw them on that tour and it brought back plenty of memories this morning.
I will listen to David Crosby all day today

[david44]

I will listen to David Crosby all day today

Me too so many great songs, thanks for all the music

Deja Vu , a great album here , even if you have ALREADY heard

[Switch]

Crosby was a deeply disturbed music genius, often bordering on insanity. Serious abuser of class A drugs, he survived for so long because people like Stills and Nash recognized his genius. The knew they were lucky to know him.

He always fought for what he believed was right, even on those rare occasions when he was wrong.

A serious loss to music.

[pickel]

I saw CSN in the late 80's. The three of them started one of their quieter songs, and about 20 seconds into it Crosby stopped, walked to the edge of the stage, and screamed "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" at a couple in the front row. He then calmly walked back and started the song again. He definitely had a short fuse.

[harrybarracuda]

Sylvia Syms, Esteemed English Actress Seen in 'The Queen,' Dies at 89



Sylvia Syms, the prolific English actress whose career stretched from 1955-2019, died at 89 on Friday, three weeks after celebrating her birthday, The Guardian reports.
Her family announced she died "peacefully" at Denville Hall, an assisted living facility in London specifically for retired performers.
"Our mother, Sylvia, died peacefully this morning," a family statement read. "She has lived an amazing life and gave us joy and laughter right up to the end. Just yesterday we were reminiscing together about all our adventures. She will be so very missed.”
Born January 6, 1934, Syms was a classically trained actor who became an overnight star with her second movie role, in "My Teenage Daughter" (1956), which capitalized on the "delinquent" trend. Next, she was BAFTA-nominated for her work in "Woman in a Dressing Gown" (1957).
Other acclaimed work came in "Ice Cold in Alex" (1958), a thriller, and "Expresso Bongo" (1959).
In 1961, she played the wife of a man (the late Dirk Bogarde) being blackmailed for his homosexuality in "Victim," a breakthrough film for queer cinema.
Excelling at comedy in the '60s, her next major acclaim arrived via the romantic thriller "The Tamarind Seed" in 1974, earning her a second BAFTA nod.
In 2006, she took on the role of the Queen Mother in "The Queen," directed by Stephen Frears and featuring Helen Mirren as Elizabeth II.
Syms had over 120 credits, many of them on TV later in her career, including the British series "Peak Practice" (1993-1995) and "EastEnders" (2007-2010).
Her greatest challenge on TV was playing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1991 telefilm "Thatcher: The Final Days."
Her last work was on an episode of HBO's "Gentleman Jack" in 2019.

Sylvia Syms, Esteemed English Actress Seen in 'The Queen,' Dies at 89

[harrybarracuda]

‘Laverne & Shirley’ actress Cindy Williams dies at 75



LOS ANGELES — Cindy Williams, who played Shirley opposite Penny Marshall’s Laverne on the popular sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” has died, her family said Monday.
Williams died in Los Angeles at age 75 on Wednesday after a brief illness, her children, Zak and Emily Hudson, said in a statement released through family spokeswoman Liza Cranis.

“The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” the statement said. “Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved.”
Williams also starred in director George Lucas’ 1973 film “American Graffiti” and director Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” from 1974.
But she was by far best known for “Laverne & Shirley,” the “Happy Days” spinoff that ran on ABC from 1976 to 1983 that in its prime was among the most popular shows on TV.
Williams played the straitlaced Shirley to Marshall’s more libertine Laverne on the show about a pair of roommates that worked at a Milwaukee bottling factory in the 1950s and 60s.
Marshall died in 2018.

Cindy Williams, 'Laverne & Shirley' actress, dies at 75 - Washington Times

[harrybarracuda]

Motown Singer and Temptations Songwriter Barrett Strong Dead at 81



Barrett Strong, the musician and songwriter behind Motown Records' first hit has died. He was 81.

The Motown Museum confirmed the news in a social media post on Sunday.

"It is with great sadness that we share the passing of legendary @ClassicMotown singer and songwriter Barrett Strong," the Twitter post read.

Strong, who born in West Point, Mississippi on Feb. 5, 1941 and raised in Detroit, co-wrote some of Motown's most enduring hits, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" for Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & the Pips.

Throughout his career, he also famously co-wrote songs for The Temptations like "I Wish It Would Rain," "Just My Imagination," "Cloud Nine," "Psychedelic Shack" and "Papa Was a Rolling Stone." The latter earned him a Grammy Award.

In 1959, Strong was signed to Gordy's Tamla Records and released his first single "Let's Rock."

Later that year, Strong created "Money (That's What I Want)" and it reached No. 2 on the U.S. R&B charts.


He also went on to work with artists such as Smokey Robinson, Aretha Franklin and more.

His contributions earned him an induction into the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2004.

Motown Singer and Temptations Songwriter Barrett Strong Dead at 81

[misskit]

Amazingly, Barry Gordy is still kicking.

[harrybarracuda]

That's sad. Only 45.



NEW YORK, NY.- Actor Annie Wersching, best known for her roles in positions of authority on television series like “Star Trek: Picard,” “24,” “Bosch” and “Timeless,” died Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 45.

The cause was cancer, her publicist, Craig Schneider, said in a statement. He noted that even after Wersching was diagnosed in 2020, she continued her acting work, playing the Borg Queen on the second season of “Picard,” a “Star Trek” spinoff on Paramount+, as well as serial killer Rosalind Dyer on the ABC crime series “The Rookie.”

Wersching was also known for playing Julia Brasher, a police officer on the Amazon series “Bosch,” and Emma Whitmore, an engineer, on the NBC series “Timeless.” On Fox’s “24,” about a counterterrorism team that protects the United States from potential attacks, she played FBI special agent Renee Walker, which she once called “a dream role.”

Annie Wersching, who played Borg Queen on 'Star Trek: Picard,' dies at 45

[harrybarracuda]

Fashion designer Paco Rabanne, known for his chainmail designs, dies aged 88

Paco Rabanne, the Spanish-born French designer best known for his metallic ensembles and space-age designs of the 1960s, has died at the age of 88.

His death in Portsall, Brittany, was confirmed by a spokesperson for Spanish group Puig, which controls the Paco Rabanne label he exited two decades ago.

"The House of Paco Rabanne wishes to honour our visionary designer and founder who passed away today at the age of 88," the statement from beauty and fashion company Puig said.

"A major personality in fashion, his was a daring, revolutionary and provocative vision, conveyed through a unique aesthetic," said Marc Puig, chairman and CEO of Puig.

Le Telegramme newspaper quoted the mayor of Vannes, David Robo, as saying that Rabanne died at his home in the Brittany region town of Portsall.

Born Francisco Rabaneda y Cuervo in 1934, the future designer fled the Spanish Basque country at age five during the Spanish Civil War and took the name of Paco Rabanne.

Rabanne grew up in France and studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris.

He started his career sketching high-end handbags and shoes, before branching into fashion, designing garments and jewellery with unconventional materials such as metal and plastic.

Rabanne was famous for his use of chainmail, the metal mesh garment associated with Medieval knights.

His first collection, which he described as "unwearable dresses made of contemporary materials" were pieces made of strips of plastic linked with metal rings, worn by barefoot models at a presentation in an upscale Paris hotel.

Rabanne dressed some of the most prominent stars of the 1960s, including French singer Francoise Hardy, whose outfits from the designer included a mini dress made from gold plates and a metal link jumpsuit, as well as Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, who were pictured in matching silver outfits.

Among his most famous looks were the fitted, skin-baring ensembles worn by Jane Fonda in Roger Vadim's cult science fiction film Barbarella.

https://www.xxx.xxx.xx/news/2023-02-...d-88/101930750

[harrybarracuda]

Actress Melinda Dillon of ‘A Christmas Story’ and ‘Close Encounters’ dies at 83



Actress Melinda Dillon, a two-time Oscar nominee best known for the movies “A Christmas Story” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” has died, according to a cremation service in Long Beach, California. She was 83.
Dillon died January 9, according to Neptune Society, the cremation provider. No cause of death was given. Her death became widely known on Friday.
She played the mother in “A Christmas Story,” a nostalgic look back at a boy longing for a toy rifle. It was released in 1983 and went on to find an annual holiday audience on video and TV.
Before that, she scored Oscar nominations as Best Supporting Actress twice. In Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters,” she searches for her little boy after aliens abduct him. And in “Absence of Malice,” she plays Paul Newman’s friend tormented by a reporter’s coverage of her abortion.
She also appeared in “Slap Shot,” “Harry and the Hendersons,” and “Bound for Glory” and episodes of TV series “Judging Amy” and “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.”

Before making movies, Dillon was nominated for a Tony Award in the original cast of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” on Broadway in the 1960s.

Actress Melinda Dillon of 'A Christmas Story' and 'Close Encounters' Dies at 83 | CNN

[harrybarracuda]

Islamabad — Gen. Pervez Musharraf, whose role as Pakistan's military ruler at the time of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S. made him a household name, has died at the age of 79.
A spokeswoman for the Pakistani Consulate in Dubai confirmed his death to The Associated Press. While his cause of death wasn't immediately clear, he was hospitalized last year in Dubai with an incurable condition related to bone marrow cancer. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the Pakistani military also confirmed his death and offered condolences to his family.
Although Musharraf only really became known on the international stage after backing the U.S. in its "war on terror" following the 9/11 attacks, he first grabbed the limelight with a coup that he launched in mid-air.
His military takeover of Pakistan began in 1999, when he was chief of army staff. He launched the takeover against the country's democratically elected prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, while aboard a flight returning from Sri Lanka. (Shehbaz Sharif, the current prime minister, is Nawaz Sharif's brother.)

Pervez Musharraf, military ruler of Pakistan who partnered with U.S. after 9/11, dies at 79 - CBS News

[misskit]

The only think I think about when I hear his name is his bad hair color.

[malmomike77]

some great tunes, formed my childhood earliest music memories - RIP


Burt Bacharach, one of pop's greatest songwriters, dies aged 94

One of pop music's greatest composers, Burt Bacharach, has died aged 94.


He wrote enduring hits like I Say A Little Prayer, Walk On By and What The World Needs Now Is Love.


Along with lyricist Hal David, he also wrote numerous movie themes including What's New, Pussycat, Alfie, and The Look Of Love, a major hit for Dusty Springfield.


Bacharach died on Wednesday at home in Los Angeles of natural causes, his publicist Tina Brausam said.


Known for his airborne melodies and sumptuous orchestral arrangements, Bacharach was one of the most important songwriters of the 20th Century.


Over his career, he scored 50 chart hits in the US and UK, working with artists including Dionne Warwick, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Barbra Streisand, Tom Jones, Aretha Franklin and Elvis Costello.


Bacharach won six Grammy Awards and was nominated 21 times


His most popular songs included:


Magic Moments - Perry Como
I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin
What Do You Get When You Fall In Love - Dionne Warwick
The Look of Love - Dionne Warwick
Close To You - The Carpenters
Alfie - Dionne Warwick
Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head - BJ Thomas
24 Hours From Tulsa - Gene Pitney
Make It Easy on Yourself - The Walker Brothers
I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself - Dusty Springfield
Alfie - Cilla Black
What's New, Pussycat? - Tom Jones
Arthur's Theme - Christopher Cross
Anyone Who Had A Heart - Dionne Warwick/Cilla Black

Burt Bacharach, one of pop'''s greatest songwriters, dies aged 94 - BBC News

[Loy Toy]

A great songwriter/ composer who vocally was totally tone death. Could not sing a note on key.

[malmomike77]

^ Beyonce and all the r&b shite ain't fit to clean his shoes

[Joe 90]

One of the finest!




Thank you

RIP

[Loy Toy]

I agree and arguably better than Elton John as he could compose music and write iyrics.

[Joe 90]

Elton John was a hasbeen until he worked in his relationship with Princess Diana.

An utter parasite and he can shove his "candle in the wind" up his gaping wizards sleeve.