Eric Lieber, producer of the groundbreaking Dick Cavett and Mike Douglas talk shows as well as the creator of (my own beloved guilty pleasure) Love Connection, has passed away of leukemia at age 71.
posted on Jul 7, 2008 - View this thread

Legendary special effects artist Stan Winston has passed away from cancer at the age of 62. From Mr. Roboto to the Terminator to Iron Man, he leaves an almost unparalleled body of work.
posted on Jun 16, 2008 - View this thread

Ellas Otha Bates R.I.P. We all knew him better as that cat with the rectangular-shaped Gretsch who played it with the hambone beat. Goodbye, Bo Diddley. And thank you.
posted on Jun 2, 2008 - View this thread

RIP, Harvey Korman
posted on May 29, 2008 - View this thread

Decrucify the Angel! John Phillip Law, star of Danger: Diabolik, Open Season, Death Rides a Horse, and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and, of course, Barbarella, has died at age 70.
posted on May 15, 2008 - View this thread

Humphrey Lyttelton has died. Musician, cartoonist, journalist and chairman of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
posted on Apr 25, 2008 - View this thread

Richard Widmark, who created a villain in his first movie role who was so repellent and frightening that the actor became a star overnight, died Monday at his home in Roxbury, Conn. He was 93. Rest in peace, Richard. Fans of his work, here is the entirety of one of the many terrific thrillers he starred in, Panic in the Streets.
posted on Mar 26, 2008 - View this thread

Drummer Buddy Miles has died. Another wonderful musician - one who played with Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsies - died far too young.
posted on Feb 29, 2008 - View this thread

RIP, Sheldon Brown. Head tech for Harris Cyclery, keeper of a vast (and very web 1.0) compendium of bicycle repair lore, often linked funny guy, and a standard answer to every bicycle question in AskMe.
posted on Feb 4, 2008 - View this thread

Tony Silver, the director of the groundbreaking hip-hop documentary Style Wars passed last night. He was a family friend of mine, and had been sick for several years with a irreversible brain condition. Style Wars is considered by some to be the best hip-hop film ever made, and by everyone to be the first. It was shot at the very start of the 1980s, when graffiti was still hip-hop's dominant form, and the idea of graffiti as art was brand new. I recommend checking out the deluxe DVD edition of the film Tony put together a few years ago after many years where it was only available as an expensive educational-only VHS, but you can also check out the 1hr 10m version on Google Video.
posted on Feb 2, 2008 - View this thread

Pimp C , one half of Texas rap group UGK (along with Bun B) was found dead today in a hotel room in Los Angeles.
posted on Dec 4, 2007 - View this thread

Evel is gone from the world Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel, Jr. (October 17, 1938 - November 30, 2007) was a motorcycle daredevil who has been a household name since the late 1960s, and arguably the most iconic motorbike stuntman of all time. Evel Knievel's highly publicized motorcycle jumps, including his attempt to jump over the Snake River Canyon, claim four of the top 20 most-watched Wide World of Sports events of all time. He enjoyed a lengthy career in this extreme sport despite suffering a series of major injuries during stunts.
posted on Nov 30, 2007 - View this thread

Mr. Whipple is dead. Long live Mr. Whipple. Oh how we loved you.
posted on Nov 19, 2007 - View this thread

Ask any one-time resident of Excelsior, MN about Jimmy "the bum" Hutmaker and you are sure to hear a tale about their experiences with a treasured local character. Some of those tales are the stuff of the best urban legends. In fact, many wrongly believed that the man who walked Main Street with a cigar invariably clenched in his teeth was homeless. Perhaps the most remarkable story about this beloved man was the tale about a day back in the 60s when Mr. Jimmy met a man named Jagger in the old Bacon's drug store. Excelsior lost a piece of history last week when Jimmy died. Since hearing the news, I am finding myself saddened by the loss of a character from my youth. RIP Mr. Jimmy.
posted on Oct 11, 2007 - View this thread

"I knew I didn't look like an ingenue... My nose was too long. I had crooked teeth. I wasn't blond. I knew I looked like a character actress. But I also knew I'd find a way." One of the most accomplished scene stealers in the history of TV comedy, character actress Alice Ghostley, is dead at 81.
posted on Sep 22, 2007 - View this thread

The strange and sad case of Carter Albrecht, formerly of Sorta and the New Bohemians.
posted on Sep 10, 2007 - View this thread

Kurt Waldheim dies at 88: Wehrmacht lieutenant, Fourth Secretary-General of the United Nations, President of Austria. R.I.P.
posted on Jun 14, 2007 - View this thread

rsspect and AfroSpear -- both bringing more Black voices of the blogosphere to our attention. Rsspect is a growing collection of feeds, and AfroSpear a group blog. The loss of Steve Gilliard of the NewsBlog this week has caused many to rightly question why more minority voices aren't as visible or prominent online.
posted on Jun 3, 2007 - View this thread

Slobodan Milosevic has died. Again. I'm sure everyone in the vampire community will miss him - whatever your personal feelings about him, there's no denying his contributions to bloodsucking. Truly a Yugoslavian icon.
posted on May 22, 2007 - View this thread

Herbert Kornfeld, 1973-2007.
posted on May 1, 2007 - View this thread

Jack Valenti, RIP.
posted on Apr 26, 2007 - View this thread

"Porky's was about anti-Semitism, about racism, it's not just about boys with erections," claims Clark. He then adds, pun intended, "It was a seminal film." Bob Clark, Director of two iconic 1980's films that profoundly impacted some of your childhoods (no doubt in decidedly different ways), and his 22 year-old son were in a fatal car crash on PCH this morning. This was set to be a promising year for the man who brought Ralphie and his bunny suit to the world. R.I.P.
posted on Apr 4, 2007 - View this thread

"Porky's was about anti-Semitism, about racism, it's not just about boys with erections," claims Clark. He then adds, pun intended, "It was a seminal film." Bob Clark, Director of two iconic 1980's films that profoundly impacted some of your childhoods (no doubt in decidedly different ways), and his 22 year-old son were in a fatal car crash on PCH this morning. This was set to be a promising year for the man who brought Ralphie and his bunny suit to the world. R.I.P.
posted on Apr 4, 2007 - View this thread

John W. Backus, creator of Fortran, RIP
posted on Mar 19, 2007 - View this thread

"I am not a great singer and I am not a great dancer, but I am a great actress, and nobody ever let me except Preston Sturges. He believed in me."

Rest in Peace, Betty Hutton.
posted on Mar 12, 2007 - View this thread

John Inman, RIP --better known as the campy stereotype Mr. Humphries on Are You Being Served? (a gay icon?)
posted on Mar 8, 2007 - View this thread

Steam Train Maury caught the Westbound home. The brakemen have to tip their hats and the railroad bulls are blind and you won't find no policemen there.
posted on Nov 21, 2006 - View this thread

Composer and arranger Rogério Duprat passed away on Thursday. Duprat had a substantial career in music for films and commercials, but he is best known for shaping the sound of Tropicalia, the revolutionary stew of Brazilian folk styles, bossa nova, MPB, rock, jazz, blues and psychedelica. Some youtube clips: Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil , Os Mutantes, and Gal Costa.
posted on Oct 31, 2006 - View this thread

Amazon launched a new video download service today. It claims to be simple to use and features some superb movies. But are Amazon and the other major vendors missing the point? Will consumers pay for legitimate content with severe limitations on use or will they simply find ways of creating their own unrestricted versions?
posted on Sep 8, 2006 - View this thread

All those things I can do. All those powers. And I couldn't even save him.
posted on Aug 31, 2006 - View this thread

"Life is wise to deceive us," he once wrote, "for had it told us from the start what it had in store for us, we would refuse to be born." --Naguib Mahfouz, RIP --and more from when he won the Nobel in 1988
posted on Aug 30, 2006 - View this thread

Tim Hildebrandt, half of the Brothers Hildebrandt artwork team, died yesterday due to complications from diabetes.
posted on Jun 12, 2006 - View this thread

REST IN PEACE: EmoKid21Ohio & Emogirl Good riddance! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!
posted on Apr 28, 2006 - View this thread

Mark Spoon , best known as half of German trance duo Jam & Spoon, was found dead today, apparently of a heart attack at age 41. Jam and Spoon aren't well known in the mainstream, but they almost single handedly invented the dance music genre today known as "Progressive Trance" with their early 90s singles "Stella" and "Age of Love" (Short MP3 samples).
posted on Jan 12, 2006 - View this thread

Derek Bailey has died. Here's an interview with him from 2001, and another about playing in Japan. Bailey was considered by many to be the father of free improvisation, beginning with his band Joseph Holbrooke, with Tony Oxley and Gavin Bryars, and, in addition to his voluminous discography, is the author of a book on the nature of improvisation.
posted on Dec 26, 2005 - View this thread

The "Hip Nip" is no more. Noriyuki "Pat" Morita has died at 73.
posted on Nov 25, 2005 - View this thread

The Right Honourable Dr Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam whose no-nonsense negotiating as Labour Secretary of State for Northern Ireland helped forge the province's landmark peace accord has died at 55 after a long battle with cancer. In reaching agreement in the Northern Ireland she got the IRA to restore their cease-fire - and defended the ceasefire when it seemed all but broken - she stood up to Ulster Unionists but paid an extraordinary visit to Northern Ireland's notorious Maze prison to meet with Loyalist and Republican inmates and shepherded the multi-party talks to a successful conclusion. Remarkably, she even devolved her own role as Secretary of State. Billy Joel was right: only the good die young.
posted on Aug 19, 2005 - View this thread

Jack Kilby , inventor of the monolithic integrated circuit (microchip) at Texas Instruments in 1958, died Monday. His vision lives on through the Kilby International Awards and Kilby Laureates "who symbolize the power of the individual creative mind to change the world, forever."
posted on Jun 22, 2005 - View this thread

Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter dies.
posted on May 2, 2005 - View this thread

R.I.P. Fred Korematsu Fred Korematsu, who unsuccessfully fought Japanese American internment camps during World War II before finally winning in court nearly four decades later, has died. He was 86. Seattle Times...New York Times (reg. req'd)
posted on Apr 1, 2005 - View this thread

Rick James dead. Big red breaking news box at CNN.com, also here. :(
posted on Aug 6, 2004 - View this thread

Another member of the Blank Generation lost. Robert Quine was found dead in his apartment in NYC yesterday, he committed suicide. He was sixty years old and had played with Richard Hell & the Voidoids, Lou Reed, Matthew Sweet, Lloyd Cole, Materia, Brian Eno and others, he also cut an LP with Jody Harris (Escape), and one with Fred Maher (Basic). It has been reported that he was suffering depression brought on by the death of his wife Alice last August. Robert also recorded the Velvet Underground on a hand held cassette deck, the highlights were issued last year as The Quine Tapes a three CD set. Personally, I'll always remember him from the jagged guitar parts from Richard Hell and Voidoids' "Blank Generation", which were the only guitar parts that I ever bothered to learn and faithfully reproduce note for note in the many times my band covered the song. Condolences to those that survive him.
posted on Jun 7, 2004 - View this thread

Logo R.I.P. - A commemoration of dead logotypes.
posted on Dec 19, 2003 - View this thread

I keep a close watch on this heart of mine
I keep my eyes wide open all the time.
I keep the ends out for the tie that binds
Because you're mine, I walk the line.

RIP Johnny Cash. He died last night at 71.
posted on Sep 12, 2003 - View this thread

R.I.P., Colonel Walter E. Kurtz 1925 - 2003. "In the post-Sept 11th security environment, fearless men like Tony 'Poe' are what America needs to combat and counter terrorism and the new unconventional threat that America faces from abroad in exotic and uncharted lands."
posted on Jul 9, 2003 - View this thread

R.I.P. Squirrel 2002-2002 He lived a short, productive life. Some guy finally shot and killed him to end his reign of terror over Chesire. I'm sure that with a good taxidermist, he will be stuffed and live on in the hearts of all of England. He also spawned an unintentionally funny caption to a picture: "A squirrel, similar to the one shown in this file photo, is spreading terror in a Cheshire town where it keeps attacking people"

I dub thee "Chester the Crazy Squirrel". May he live his afterlife like he lived his life, by attacking people at random.
posted on Nov 8, 2002 - View this thread

Spenser: Retired Robert Urich 1946-2002 :(
posted on Apr 17, 2002 - View this thread

RIP Jim Ellis. Jim was one of the co-founders of Usenet. Today's a sad day, between Michael's death and Jim's... Why is it that net pioneers die so young...
posted on Jun 29, 2001 - View this thread

The XFL is dead! Now who had May 10th in the pool?
posted on May 10, 2001 - View this thread

Rip Mix Burn? The issue here isn't the usual, "Did they sell out?" It's more a case of, Is this stellar groups saying Napster is OK (in a roundabout way), or did they just need the cash?
posted on Mar 19, 2001 - View this thread