The Celebrity Obituary Thread

[Gant]

Loved The Persuaders as a kid... and Sweet Smell of Success will always be one of my all time favorite movies..

[Sylvie]

What a sad news ...

I liked this film very much as a child, "Trapeze", often shown on TV at Christmas time ...

And The Persuaders, every Saturday afternoon, like a "must" ...

Last time I watched a film with him - it was at least the tenth time - it was last year, in "The Vikings"  

RIP Monsieur Curtis.

[KC]

Here's a link to the New York Times obituary of Curtis, again by Dave Kehr:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/movies/01curtis.html?_r=1&hp

It's a interesting read, as Times obituaries usually are. Here's the beginning:

Tony Curtis, a classically handsome movie star who earned an Oscar nomination as an escaped convict in Stanley Kramer’s 1958 movie “The Defiant Ones,” but whose public preferred him in comic roles in films like “Some Like It Hot” (1959) and “The Great Race” (1965), died Wednesday of cardiac arrest in his Las Vegas area home. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by the Clark County coroner, The Associated Press reported.

As a performer, Mr. Curtis drew first and foremost on his startlingly good looks. With his dark, curly hair, worn in a sculptural style later imitated by Elvis Presley, and plucked eyebrows framing pale blue eyes and wide, full lips, Mr. Curtis embodied a new kind of feminized male beauty that came into vogue in the early 1950s. A vigorous heterosexual in his widely publicized (not least by himself) private life, he was often cast in roles that drew on a perceived ambiguity: his full-drag impersonation of a female jazz musician in “Some Like It Hot”; a slave who attracts the interest of a Roman senator (Laurence Olivier) in Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus” (1960); a man attracted to a mysterious blond (Debbie Reynolds) who turns out to be the reincarnation of his male best friend in Vincente Minnelli’s “Goodbye Charlie” (1964).

But behind the pretty-boy looks could be found a dramatically potent combination of naked ambition and deep vulnerability, both likely products of his Dickensian childhood in the Bronx. Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz on June 3, 1925, to Helen and Emanuel Schwartz, Jewish immigrants from Hungary. Emanuel operated a tailor shop in a poor neighborhood, and the family occupied cramped quarters behind the store, the parents in one room and little Bernard sharing another with his two brothers, Julius and Robert. Helen Schwartz suffered from schizophrenia and frequently beat the three boys. (Robert was later found to have the same disease.)

R.I.P.

[Doug]

R.I.P. Tony Curtis

[LCat]

I liked Eddie Fisher in Butterfield 8 with Elizabeth Taylor, and I just loved Tony Curtis in general. They lived quite long lives--I hope they had fun. I shall miss them.

LCat

[higashimori]

  R.I.P. Tony Curtis

  
   http://bit.ly/cyJWJG

[The Schofield Kid]

Stephen J. Cannell, the prolific television writer and producer who co-created "The Rockford Files" and "The A-Team" and later became a bestselling novelist, has died. He was 69.

Cannell died Thursday evening of complications associated with melanoma at his home in Pasadena, his family said.

LA Times

[KC]

The New York TImes had a couple of nice follow-up articles on Tony Curtis (the second one compares him to Arthur Penn):

An Appraisal: Marvelous Invention of Movie Make-Believe

How Arthur Penn Undid Tony Curtis

They're by, respectively, A.O. Scott and Dave Kehr.

[Lin Sunderland]

Norman Wisdom has died at 95

http://www.mirror.co.uk/celebs/news/2010/10/05/norman-wisdom-dead-at-95-tributes-flood-in-115875-22609743/




He was a slapstick comedian, made many movies and had a really pleasant singing voice. 

He made so many people around the world laugh.

RIP Norman.

[Lucky Punk]

Hi Lin

Good old Norman. He made me laugh alot when I was a bairn. I found some of his films a bit mawkish as I got older but he was such a warm presence I could forgive the sentimentality and remember he was making movies for families in a less complicated era. A superb physical comedian and, as I remember a pretty good singer.

He was apparently the most popular comedy actor in  Albania where he was known as Pitkin (the usual name of his character).

LP

[Gant]

I loved his films as a kid and was lucky enough to see him perform live about 15 years ago..
He was still going strong in his 80's.. throwing himself about and playing every instrument in the band..

Great performer... it is sad he's not with us any longer,  even tho he lived a long life.. it's a little piece of my childhood gone..

RIP Norman.

[TWOMULES]

I'm sad to hear about the passing today of Sir Norman Wisdom.

He was a fantastic slapstick comedian.. I enjoyed watching his films on TV when I was younger, I loved 'Trouble in Store', the film in which he sang Don't Laugh At Me ('cause I'm A Fool)"

Gant, I'm glad you got to see him live and I also feel the same way as you, a little piece of my childhood has now gone.

R.I.P. Sir Norman.

[B.C.]

When Elvis Met Tony Curtis

[higashimori]

 King Solomon is dies..... R.I.P.

 " Solomon Burke, Soul Singer, Dies at 70 "

 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/10/10/arts/AP-EU-Obit-Solomon-Burke.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Solomon%20Burke&st=cse

 

AMSTERDAM (AP) — Solomon Burke, the larger-than-life "King of Rock and Soul" who was revered as one of music's greatest vocalists but never reached the level of fame of those he influenced, died early Sunday at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. He was 70.

Born to the sound of music in an upstairs room of a Philadelphia church, Burke was acknowledged as one of the greatest soul singers of the 1960s, but his popularity never matched that of contemporaries like James Brown or Marvin Gaye.

Two of Burke's best-known songs reached a wider audience when they were featured in hit movies.

He wrote "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" in 1964 and it was later featured in the Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi movie "The Blues Brothers." The Rolling Stones and Wilson Pickett also recorded it.

A bare-chested Patrick Swayze danced seductively with Jennifer Grey to Burke's "Cry To Me" in one of the most memorable scenes from the movie "Dirty Dancing."

 

[Lin Sunderland]

Dame Joan Sutherland has died aged 83.

She was born in Sydney Australia and sang all over the world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11517053

I saw her singing in The Merry Widow in the Sydney Opera House about 35 years ago.  She was fantastic in the role and brought real humour to the part.

[KC]

She, like Maria Callas, was a celebrated interpreter of Bellini's Norma.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJ2L_B7VOWs

R.I.P.

[Christopher]

Barbara Billingsley has passed away at age 94. She was of course best known for Leave it to Beaver. And who could ever forget her small role in Airplane?

http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/leave-it-to-beaver-barbara-billinglsey-died-18768/

[KC]

R.I.P., Simon MacCorkindale.



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/arts/television/16maccorkindale.html

Simon MacCorkindale, the dashing British actor who turned heads in the star-studded 1978 film “Death on the Nile”  and went on to play villains and charming Englishmen on numerous television shows in Britain and the United States, died on Thursday in London. He was 58.

[Aline]

I remember him in the tv series Manimal too. Handsome actor.
Rest in Peace, Simon

[LCat]

Tom Bosley passed away! RIP

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/article/tv-news.en.reuters.com/tv-news.en.reuters.com-20101019-us_tombosley