The Celebrity Obituary Thread

[KC]

Back to topic.

R.I.P. Cheetah!

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/cheetah-chimpanzee-in-tarzan-movies-has-died/


Associated Press  Cheetah the chimpanzee with Maureen O’Sullivan and Johnny Weissmuller in a scene from the 1932 film “Tarzan the Ape Man.”

December 28, 2011, 9:53 am
Cheetah, Chimpanzee in ‘Tarzan’ Movies, Has Died
By DAVE ITZKOFF

Cheetah, a chimpanzee who was one of the most famous animal stars of the 1930s and appeared with Johnny Weissmuller in such Depression-era adventure films as “Tarzan the Ape Man” and “Tarzan and His Mate,” has died, The Tampa Tribune reported. Debbie Cobb, the outreach director at the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, Fla., where Cheetah lived, told The Tribune that Cheetah was about 80 years old and died of kidney failure on Saturday.

In the Tarzan film series, whose golden age spanned 1932 to 1948, Cheetah was said to have appeared in the films made between 1932 and 1934, as a comic and sympathetic animal sidekick whose intelligence sometimes seemed to rival that of his human co-stars, Weissmuller (who played the titular jungle lord) and Maureen O’Sullivan (who portrayed his civilized love interest, Jane).

Ms. Cobb told The Tribune that the Suncoast Primate Sanctuary received Cheetah from Weissmuller’s Ocala estate around 1960. Of the 15 chimpanzees kept at the sanctuary, Cheetah, she said, was the most famous and an outgoing ape with a gentle personality, who had long outlived the 35 to 45 years that chimpanzees typically survive in captivity.

“He was very compassionate,” Ms. Cobb said. “He could tell if I was having a good day or a bad day. He was always trying to get me to laugh if he thought I was having a bad day. He was very in tune to human feelings.”

She said Cheetah was soothed by Christian music and also enjoyed fingerpainting and football, though she was unsure if the chimpanzee had any favorite teams.

“I couldn’t ask him that,” Ms. Cobb told The Tribune. “I’m not a chimp psychic.”

In a post on her Twitter account, Mia Farrow, who is O’Sullivan’s daughter, wrote: “Cheetah the chimp in Tarzan movies died this week at 80. My mom, who played Jane, invariably referred to Cheetah as ‘that bastard.’ ”

[Christopher]

Oh, wow, I wouldn't have guessed the chimp from those movies had still been alive!

[Jed Cooper]

Back to topic.

R.I.P. Cheetah!

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/cheetah-chimpanzee-in-tarzan-movies-has-died/


Associated Press  Cheetah the chimpanzee with Maureen O’Sullivan and Johnny Weissmuller in a scene from the 1932 film “Tarzan the Ape Man.”

R.I.P. Cheetah

[higashimori]

 R.I.P. Cheetah !!   

[LCat]

Say it isn't so! No, not Cheetah!

RIP, Cheetah...

[The Schofield Kid]

Bob Anderson, an Olympic swordsman who staged fights for films including the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings series, has died at the age of 89.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/movies/force-flickers-out-20120103-1piwt.html

[KC]

Say it isn't so! No, not Cheetah!

RIP, Cheetah...

Apparently, there are questions in some quarters as to whether the recently deceased chimpanzee could actually be the same as the one who once swung through the vines with Johnny Weissmuller and Maureen O'Sullivan.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/28/cheetah-chimpanzee-in-tarzan-movies-has-died/

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/us/sanctuary-claims-recently-deceased-chimp-was-in-tarzan.html

[The Schofield Kid]

Etta James, the earthy blues and R&B singer whose anguished vocals convinced generations of listeners that she would rather go blind than see her love leave, then communicated her joy upon finding that love at last, died Friday morning, said her son, Donto James. She was 73.

She died of complications from leukemia at a hospital in Riverside, said Dr. Elaine James, her personal physician.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-etta-james-20120121,0,1608543.story

[Gant]

Rest In Peace Etta.. A truly enormous talent.
I'm gonna open a bottle o' red and only play Etta James records all night..

[KC]

Etta James was portrayed by Beyoncé Knowles in the 2008 movie Cadillac Records. I haven't seen it, but perhaps it was that performance that led to Eastwood's recent remark that Beyoncé "could become a new Sarah Vaughan or the next Ella Fitzgerald."

[higashimori]

　http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx_AhWeFcOU&feature=related

　http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/arts/music/etta-james-singer-dies-at-73.html?_r=1&emc=na


　Rest In Peace Etta. 
　

[KC]

R.I.P., Senator!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/us/disbelief-still-as-florida-reacts-to-burning-of-3500-year-old-tree.html

LONGWOOD, Fla. — Back, way back, before King Tut was born and Alexander the Great roamed his empire, the Senator sprouted in a swamp here in central Florida, one of thousands of its kind.

So on Monday, when word got out that the huge, 3,500-year-old bald cypress had burned and collapsed, people from the area who thought that nothing — not hurricanes, not loggers, not disease — could fell the Senator, sank into disbelief. In a state known for its sprawl and its zeal for pouring concrete, the Senator stood as a testament to nature and ancient history. It was one of the oldest trees in the country and, at 118 feet, one of the tallest east of the Mississippi.

1920s:


2012:

[higashimori]

 What a pity!  An unbelievable and sad story!  What a disappointing loss!　

 Rest in Peace Senator.   

[higashimori]

 
 " Famed Greek Director Theo Angelopoulos Killed During Movie Filming "

 Voice of America
 
 http://goo.gl/Cp2tP

 

Award-winning Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos died Tuesday after being hit by a motorcycle while filming scenes on his latest movie.

Angelopoulos was rushed to an Athens hospital where he died hours later of head injuries. He was 76 years old. The motorcyclist was an off-duty policeman.

Angelopoulos was Greece's most honored contemporary director, winning numerous awards at European film festivals.

He is best known for his 1998 film, Eternity and a Day, which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

At the time of his death, he was directing The Other Sea, a film about the impact of Greece's economic crisis on its citizens.

 The great loss......Rest in Peace MR. Angelopoulos. 

[The Schofield Kid]

James Farentino, a tall, dark and dashing actor who in his nearly 100 roles on stage, screen and television often defied the stereotype of the leading man, even though he fit the picture, died on Tuesday in Los Angeles. He was 73.

As a Navy officer in the 1980 science-fiction film “The Final Countdown,” Mr. Farentino stood beside Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen on the deck of a modern aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Nimitz, as it passed through a time warp to Pearl Harbor, hours before the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941. They had to decide whether to use the full power of their supercarrier to destroy the Japanese fleet or allow history to take its course.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/movies/james-farentino-dashing-leading-man-dies-at-73.html

The Final Countdown is a favorite of mine.

RIP James. 

[KC]

Today's Times also published the obit of another well-known actor ... Nicol Williamson. He actually passed away on December 16, but the news of his death was just released.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/theater/nicol-williamson-a-mercurial-actor-is-dead-at-75.html

Nicol Williamson, a Scottish-born actor whose large, renegade talent made him a controversial Hamlet, an eccentric Macbeth, an angry, high-strung Vanya and, on the screen, a cocaine-sniffing Sherlock Holmes — and whose querulous temperament could make his antics as commanding as his performances — died on Dec. 16 in Amsterdam, where he had lived for more than 20 years. He was 75.

R.I.P., Nicol.

[The Schofield Kid]

I only saw that film Nicol Williamsom was in where he played Sherlock Holmes recently and all I kept thinking to myself was the poor guy probably went through life with everyone calling him Nicole.

RIP Nicol.

[higashimori]

 " Don Cornelius, ‘Soul Train’ Creator, Is Dead at 75 "

  By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/arts/music/don-cornelius-soul-train-creator-is-dead-at-75.html?_r=1&hp

 

Don Cornelius, the smooth-voiced television host who brought black music and culture into America’s living rooms when he created the dance show “Soul Train,” was found dead at his home in Los Angeles early Wednesday in what appeared to be a suicide, the authorities said. He was 75.

   

    R.I.P.

[LCat]

As they used to say in old English: Would it were untrue!

I'll see you around, Don Cornelius,  and quoting you, "you can bet your last money, it's all gonna be a stone gas, honey!... And as always in parting, we wish you love, peace and soul!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Cornelius

[The Schofield Kid]

I only just found out that Ian Abercrombie passed away on January 26. The name may not be familar but he's probably best remembered as Elaine's boss, Mr. Pitt in Seinfeld. I myself tried to eat a Snickers bar with a knife and fork back in the day.



http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000718/