The Celebrity Obituary Thread

[Lin Sunderland]

 RIP Frank McCourt.   

Angela's Ashes was a book that made a great impression on me when I read it about 10 years ago.

[Lin Sunderland]

Harry Patch the last surviving soldier of the First World War in the trenches died this morning July 25th at 8.50.     He was 111.  
Last week Henry Allingham the oldest man in the world, also a veteran of the First World War died aged 113.

Harry's book The Last Fighting Tommy makes very serious reading.  He was an amazing man and only a few weeks ago was at a school talking to the children about the war and his life.


Rest in peace Harry.


Link

[KC]

Wow, I wonder if Harry and Henry knew each other! R.I.P.

[Lin Sunderland]

Wow, I wonder if Harry and Henry knew each other! R.I.P.

Yes they did KC




Taken in 2006.     Left to right,   Harry Patch, Bill Stone and Henry Allingham.    They are all gone now


LINK

[KC]

They don't look a day over 100!

[higashimori]

Taken in 2006.     Left to right,   Harry Patch, Bill Stone and Henry Allingham.    They are all gone now

 It was in front of 10 Dawning Street.    I am sorry that MR Henry does not have to take advantage of the world record of longevity. R.I.P
 

[higashimori]

  And another big lost , Merce Cunningham, Dance Visionary, Dies .    R.I.P

  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/arts/dance/28cunningham.html?_r=1

 

By ALASTAIR MACAULAY
Published: July 27, 2009

Merce Cunningham, the revolutionary American choreographer, died Sunday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 90.

His death was announced by the Cunningham Dance Foundation.

Over a career of nearly seven decades, Mr. Cunningham went on posing “But” and “What if?” questions, making people rethink the essence of dance and choreography. He went on doing so almost to the last.

[Lin Sunderland]

RIP Merce Cunningham.    That is sad news.   I listened to a radio progam about him a couple of days ago.

[higashimori]

 I am so sorry again....."  George Russell, Composer Whose Theories Sent Jazz in a New Direction, Dies at 86 "     R.I.P

 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=40173

 

SOURCE: The New York Times - Jazz

 George Russell, a jazz composer, educator and musician whose theories led the way to radical changes in jazz in the 1950s and ’60s, died on Monday in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. He was 86 and lived in Boston.
The cause was complications of Alzheimer’s disease, said his wife, Alice.

Though he largely operated behind the scenes and was never well known to the general public, Mr. Russell was a major figure in one of the most important developments in post-World War II jazz: the emergence of modal jazz, the first major harmonic change in the music after bebop.

Bebop, the modern style pioneered by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and others, had introduced a new level of harmonic sophistication, based on rapidly moving cycles of dense and sometimes dissonant chords. Modal jazz, as popularized by Miles Davis and John Coltrane, sought to give musicians more freedom and to simplify the harmonic playing field by, in essence, replacing chords with scales as the primary basis for improvisation.

 http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/musician.php?id=3978

[Gant]

Billy Lee Riley 1933-2009

Another Sun Records recording  legend passes on...

Although he never atained the status of Elvis or Jerry Lee.. Billy was a major talent and a true pioneer of Rock n Roll...  Also  big influence on many artists, I was lucky enough to see him perform live many times and he always deliverd..

[Conan]

RIP John Hughes

I grew up on his movies, many of which helped define a generation.  I love The Breakfast Club, and may have seen it more than any other non-Eastwood flick.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/06/obit.john.hughes/index.html

[Tang Lung]

Home Alone......love those films so much 

Aug 5th : 25th anniversary Richard Burton

[KC]

RIP John Hughes

I grew up on his movies, many of which helped define a generation.  I love The Breakfast Club, and may have seen it more than any other non-Eastwood flick.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/08/06/obit.john.hughes/index.html

Gee ... he was only 59!

Hughes died of a heart attack while taking a morning walk in Manhattan, according to the statement.

[Lin Sunderland]

RIP John Hughes,  He was far too young to leave us.

[Christopher]

Yeah, I saw Conan's post yesterday and was quite shocked. It is an unfortunate loss to his family and the film community. I love Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

[Richard Earl]

I grew up in the 80's and I think what would movies have been like in that decade without John Hughes and the 1980's would have suffered big time. Weird Science, The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink, Some Kind Of Wonderful, Ferris Bueller's Day Off and National Lampoon's Vacation(John wrote the screenplay) are some of my all time favorite films. I am saddened.

[KC]

Here's a link to the New York Times obit for John Hughes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/movies/07hughesobit.html

R.I.P.

[Gant]

R.I.P Les Paul    1915-2009
 


Legendary guitarist Les Paul passed away at White Plains hospital NY.

An absolute musical legend.... A great jazz guitarist, a pioneer of multi track recording, Godfather of the electric guitar.
All rock guitarists owe him an enormous debt..

[KC]

Here's a link to the New York Times obit for Les Paul ... R.I.P.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/14/arts/music/14paul.html

[Gant]

Thanks for posting that KC.