Emmy Award-winning actress Estelle Getty has died.
posted on Jul 22, 2008 - View this thread

Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki, founder of Benihana restaurants and father of Devon Aoki, died from cancer complications on Friday. He was also an olympic wrestler, balloonist, backgammon player, and more.
posted on Jul 13, 2008 - View this thread

Fmr. US Senator Jesse Helms, 1921 - 2008.
posted on Jul 4, 2008 - View this thread

Death of a legend.
posted on Jun 28, 2008 - View this thread

George Carlin Dead at 71 Not sure if I really want to make a joke out of this one, but why not post your favorite quotes and routines of his.
posted on Jun 22, 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

Tim Russert dead at 58.
posted on Jun 13, 2008 - View this thread

Legendary artist Alton Kelley created a graphic style that rocked the world beginning in the psychedelic sixties. His concert posters, logo designs, LP album covers, and fine art have forevermore defined that time. Kelley passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, June 1, 2008 of complications from a long illness.
posted on Jun 2, 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

Steve Cisler - first Internet librarian died on May 15th. "Steve was a unique intellectual populist. I believe his driving force was to put the power of computing resources, and the ability to communicate with same, into the hands of all who could benefit" Librarians, techies, activists and the unconnected alike will miss him terribly. This tribute from Ted Byfield went out to the nettime mailing list. A more official obit from the Mercury News "Steve Knew A Lot About A Lot". If you knew Steve you can post memories of him here or here. [cite for thread title]
posted on May 29, 2008 - View this thread

Say good night, Dick. Best known for the highly successful Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Dick Martin was the silly, almost child-like counterpart to straight-man Dan Rowan.

Dick "accompanies" Tiny Tim.
Another Laugh-In intro.
In the Cocktail Party scenes, Dick's specialty was delivering pick-up lines.

U. Utah Phillips, Wobbly folk singer, has died.
posted on May 24, 2008 - View this thread

Eddy Arnold, one of Country Music's all time greats died early this morning just days short of his 90th birthday.
posted on May 8, 2008 - View this thread

R.I.P. John Wheeler , theoretical physicist. Famous for the Wheeler-Feynman equations and the term "black hole," which he coined to describe a singular point mass, he has died at age 96. The NYT usually gives pretty good obituary but they outdid themselves this time.
posted on Apr 13, 2008 - View this thread

Charlton Heston has died at age 84.
posted on Apr 5, 2008 - View this thread

ObitFilter: Robert Fagles. One of the few men to tackle translating The Iliad, The Odyssey, and The Aeneid, Robert Fagles has died. All of his translations were fast-paced, vibrant renderings that turned the classics once again into best-sellers.
posted on Mar 30, 2008 - View this thread

Former Beatles roadie Neil Aspinall has died of lung cancer. He was the head of the Beatles’ Apple Corporation until about a year ago, when he resigned after the settlement of a long running dispute with Apple Computer.
posted on Mar 26, 2008 - View this thread

Hal Riney, a legendary ad man, has died at age 75. Hal Riney has died of cancer. You may have heard his voiceovers for First Union's PBS sponsorship ads, chuckled at his ingenious fictional 'every person' wine producers Bartles and Jaymes or been blown away or utterly disgusted by his Reagan presidential campaign ad series Morning In America (rumor has it that Riney was a Democrat), worked with him or for him at Hal Riney & Partners or Publicis & Hal Riney in San Francisco, or marveled at how his agency made Saturn a major player in the auto industry (while obscuring it was just another GM product!). So long, Hal!
posted on Mar 25, 2008 - View this thread

Gary Gygax has failed his saving throw.
posted on Mar 4, 2008 - View this thread

Master of the 'didge' - after veins burst in his throat some years ago while he was playing the didgeridoo, doctors warned that continued playing would threaten his life. Admitted to hospital last week with bleeding on the brain, he died on Sunday from a brain haemorrhage. He was 40.
posted on Feb 28, 2008 - View this thread

"I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up." Larry Norman, "father of Christian rock," dead at 60. YouTubery: 1, 2, 3.
posted on Feb 26, 2008 - View this thread

Pere Ubu guitarist Jim Jones dead. Jones also played in The electric eels.
posted on Feb 20, 2008 - View this thread

Alain Robbe-Grillet, French author, member of the Académie française and subject of this recent Mefi post, has passed away at age 85.
posted on Feb 18, 2008 - View this thread

Roy Scheider, rest in peace.
posted on Feb 10, 2008 - View this thread

Barry Morse - an actor with an extremely rich and varied career, popular in many roles but iconic as the (original) pursuer of Dr Richard Kimble in the (original) tv series The Fugitive, and memorable to Sci Fi fans as Professor Victor Bergman in Space: 1999, has passed on. He was 89.
posted on Feb 5, 2008 - View this thread

Did you hear about the BMW M5 crash that occurred in Ocala, Florida over the weekend? (video - with a car advertisement opening, ironically). The five teenagers in the car flew 200 feet off an airport runway, then hit a tree, splitting the car in half. What you may not have heard of was that the driver, Josh Ammirato, was an active member of m5board.com, an online BMW M5 forum community. AmericanM5, he was known by, had posted only a day before the crash, asking about rough shifts when exceeding 140MPH. The thread about his crash. Edmunds Inside Line has full details of story, including map of the accident.
posted on Jan 29, 2008 - View this thread

Indonesia's former President Mohammed Suharto, who towered over Indonesian politics for 32 years, has died in hospital aged 86. Accused of amassing billions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth for himself, his family and friends, Indonesian officials were never able to find any evidence of this ill-gotten wealth. The BBC remembers him in pictures.
posted on Jan 27, 2008 - View this thread

George Habash aka the Doctor, founder of the PFLP has died. The group, still extant, were notorious for various attacks in the 60s and 70s, most notably the Dawson's Field Hijackings in the early days of Black September when four planes bound for NYC were hijacked. Three were evacuated and detonated on live TV at a remote airstrip in Jordon. Leila Khaled (Mefites might better know her the inspiration for another Doctor's accomplice, Leela) and her Sandinista accomplice Patrick Argüello boarded a Swissair flight from Amsterdam posed as married Hondurans. Argüello was assaulted with a whiskey bottle and finally shot, while Leila was arrested and released as part of an exchange deal. Though the group gave up hijacking, the Japanese Red Army, armed with Czech rifles concealed in violin cases, orchestrated the Lod Airport massacre on their behalf, killing mostly mostly Puerto Rican pilgrims. The only surviving culprit, Kozo Okamoto is eventually granted refuge in Lebanon.
posted on Jan 26, 2008 - View this thread

Heath Ledger found dead in Manhattan apartment.
posted on Jan 22, 2008 - View this thread

'Daydream Believer' writer Stewart, who came to prominence in the 1960s as a member of folk music's Kingston Trio, died Saturday at a San Diego hospital after suffering a brain aneurism. He was 68. The Monkees version of his biggest hit. But Stewart, one of our greatest singer/songwriters never achieved the level of fame many of us felt he deserved. No matter, he seemed to prefer the intimacy of small clubs and released dozens of albums, like the timelessCalifornia Bloodlines and scores of other beautiful songs, such as July, You Are A Woman, Walk On the Moon and his own aged like a fine bourbon rendition of Daydream Believer.
posted on Jan 21, 2008 - View this thread

Bobby Fischer, former World Champion chess player, dead at 64.
posted on Jan 18, 2008 - View this thread

Vampira, RIP. Maila Nurmi, movie star and horror movie host, friend to James Dean, and documentary subject, has passed away.
posted on Jan 11, 2008 - View this thread

"Hugh Massingberd, a celebrated former obituaries editor of The Telegraph of London who made a once-dreary page required reading by speaking frankly, wittily and often gleefully ill of the dead, became the recipient of his own services after dying in West London on Christmas Day." The linked NY Times obit (by Margalit Fox; print version) contains many good quotes, like "The Telegraph’s send-off of one Lt. Col. Geoffrey Knowles, 'who as a subaltern was bitten in the buttocks by a bear — he survived but the bear expired'"; The Telegraph's own obit is much longer (and, of course, unsigned) and contains, along with more good zingers, a well-written account of his life ("The inevitable consequence of his bingeing proved another triumph of style, as Massingberd, a tall, slim and notably handsome youth with hollowed-out cheeks, transmogrified into an impressively corpulent presence whose moon face lit up with Pickwickian benevolence").
posted on Dec 30, 2007 - View this thread

Oscar Peterson passed away last night.
posted on Dec 24, 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

Norman Mailer Dies at 84
posted on Nov 10, 2007 - View this thread

Catherine Roraback was the only woman in her class at Yale Law School. She was a founder of the Connecticut ACLU, and a president of the National Lawyers Guild. During her long career she defended labor organizers, immigrants, civil rights organizers, Black Panthers, and maybe most famously, Estelle Griswold before the United States Supreme Court in the case that legalized the distribution of birth control. She died this week at age 87.
posted on Oct 24, 2007 - View this thread

NewsFilter: "A Montgomery minister found in his home this summer died with his hands and feet bound behind his back and dressed in two rubberized suits, an offical autopsy showed. ... The Rev. Gary Michael Aldridge was found dead June 24. Police ruled the 51-year-old pastor of Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone at the time of his death and that there was no foul play involved." He's a Liberty University graduate and former Liberty dean.
posted on Oct 12, 2007 - View this thread

R.I.P. Robert Jordan (1948-2007). The author of the best-selling fantasy series The Wheel of Time succumbed to amyloidosis this afternoon.
posted on Sep 16, 2007 - View this thread

1995 world Rally Champion Colin McRae has died in a helicopter crash with his 5 year old son.
posted on Sep 15, 2007 - View this thread

Alfred Peet died last month; Is he the real father of Starbucks? Either way, cheers to some good java.
posted on Sep 12, 2007 - View this thread

ObitFilter: Madeleine L'Engle, Newberry-winning and banned author, died Thursday aged 89.
posted on Sep 7, 2007 - View this thread

Turandot will never be the same. Washington Post is reporting that Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti has died at his home in Modena.
posted on Sep 5, 2007 - View this thread

Michael Jackson the Beer Hunter (not the other one) passed away this morning. Beer fans remember the man and his impact on the world of beer. Among other things, he is responsible for establishing the definition of worldwide beer styles. He is also credited with reviving the Belgian beer industry and inspiring the U.S. microbrewing renaissance. I'll raise a glass of ale to him tonight because he was a friend and inspiration.
posted on Aug 30, 2007 - View this thread

Hilly Kristal has died at age 75. First the club, now the man.
posted on Aug 29, 2007 - View this thread

A wonderful obituary in the NYT for Grace Paley, who died yesterday at her home in Thetford Hill, Vt. She was 84.
posted on Aug 23, 2007 - View this thread

Max Roach has passed at age 83. The famed drum innovator, composer and educator who came to prominence during the bebop era died last evening at age 83 at home in Manhattan. Known as the pioneer of a technically complex style that allowed for far greater improvisational texture, Max was one of the first drummers to step out from the role as mere timekeeper. His imprint on both the history of jazz and the history of music is indelible.
posted on Aug 16, 2007 - View this thread

A shortstop extraordinaire, loan pitchman, vocal accompanist, announcing icon. and friend to yogi's ...has left the building. RIP, Scooter.
posted on Aug 14, 2007 - View this thread

Elizabeth Murray, a New York painter who reshaped Modernist abstraction into a high-spirited, cartoon-based, language of form whose subjects included domestic life, relationships and the nature of painting itself, died yesterday at her home in upstate New York. (Images)
posted on Aug 12, 2007 - View this thread