CNN reports that Strom Thurmond died about an ago,
this time for real. The South Carolina senator first served as state senator in 1933, went on to become governor in 1947, and won his Senate seat in 1954. In the last years of his term, the recently-retired Senator was barely functional, unable to so much as wield a gavel. Thurmond will likely be remembered for leading the opposition to civil rights for blacks in the mid-20th century. Strom Thurmond was 100 years old.
posted by waldo
on Jun 26, 2003 -
97 comments
Leslie Cheung has died. I have no idea how to express my grief, but I feel that this should be discussed here. Yet his death seems to go unmentioned. What could drive someone to do this, and how could the media ignore such a tragic event?
posted by son_of_minya
on Apr 1, 2003 -
30 comments
Mr. Noodle's Brother Mr. Noodle a.k.a.
Michael Jeter passed away over the weekend. Those of us with young children glued to Elmo's World will know him on sight. With everything going on in Iraq, we don't need any more bad news, but the loss of this actor has really effected me.
Silly Noodle...you'll be missed.
posted by lasthrsman
on Mar 31, 2003 -
10 comments
Mr. Rogers Dead. Fred Rogers of "Mister Roger's Neighborhood" died of stomach cancer at age 74. To be honest, his was never my personal favorite PBS kid's show growing up (I preferred off-brand shows like "Zoom" and "3-2-1 Contact"). But my appreciation for him when I was an adult was pretty high. Anyway, it's a sad day in the neighborhood.
posted by jscalzi
on Feb 27, 2003 -
130 comments
Take this life and shove it: So goodbye then,
Johnny PayCheck. Even the very British and conservative
Daily Telegraph honoured you today with an affectionate
obituary [
Reg. required: full text inside.] I wonder how many unrepentant rebel-singin', cocaine-sniffin', bar-brawlin', hard-drinkin', good-lovin', corn-munchin' musicians there are left. And whether any of the young 'uns today will be able to keep up, livin' the life, as long as you did. Even though you too eventually succumbed to preaching against drink and drugs. I suspect most of the new generation will become health freaks by the time they hit forty and that you, Sir, were one of a dying breed.
posted by Carlos Quevedo
on Feb 21, 2003 -
1 comment
Snooker legend dies A very sad day for snooker lovers. Bill Werbeniuk, the only man to split his trousers on live television during a professional snooker match, has died. And he liked a pint or thirty.
posted by skellum
on Jan 22, 2003 -
22 comments
Al Hirschfeld passed away today at 99. He was probably one of, if not the, most famous caricaturists in history, drawing an enormous range of stars, from Chaplin and Bergen to Seinfeld and Benny.
The Line King was a '96 documentary about his work and the stars he drew in an 70+ year career as an illustrator. Very sad to think that the popular pasttime of counting the Ninas in the drawings has ended.
posted by PeteyStock
on Jan 20, 2003 -
13 comments
Emmett just barely got on that train to Mississippi. We could hear the whistle blowing. As he was running up the steps, I said, 'Bo,'--that's what I called him--'you didn't kiss me. How do I know I'll ever see you again?' He turned around and said, 'Oh, Mama.' Gently scolding me. He ran down those steps and gave me a kiss. As he turned to go up the steps again, he pulled his watch off and said, 'Take this, I won't need it.' I said, 'What about your ring?' He was wearing his father's ring for the first time. He said, 'I'm going to show this to my friends.' That's how we were able to identify him, by that ring. I think it was a Mason's ring.
Mamie Till-Mobley, 81, who wanted the world to see her teenage
son's disfigured
face after his slaying in Mississippi in 1955 and who became a figure in the civil rights movement, died of a heart ailment Jan. 6 at a hospital in Chicago. She had kidney failure.
The impact of the Emmett Till case on black America was even greater than that of the Brown decision. On January 20, 2003, The American Experience will present, on PBS,
The Murder of Emmett Till. (Continued Inside)
posted by y2karl
on Jan 9, 2003 -
51 comments
Peace Activist Philip Berrigan Dead at 79 Yes, I know, obituaries are depressing. But this man was one of my very few heros. He fought a good fight, but in this age of corporate sponsored and government promoted dimunation of conscience can a single person "bearing witness" to the immoral actions that go on in this world really make a difference? Or is the idea of citizen protest just a quaint vestige of another era?
[
NYT link]
posted by ahimsakid
on Dec 7, 2002 -
8 comments
Bigfoot is dead. The original 'creator' of the legendary bigfoot hoax has died. Some of his
"work". How much more difficult to pull off would a 'hoax' of this magnitude be today?
posted by cinderful
on Dec 5, 2002 -
17 comments
Actor Richard Harris dies "Don't let it be forgot - that once there was a spot - for one brief, shining moment - that was known as Camelot..." Such a sad day all around. R.I.P., Richard.
posted by dnash
on Oct 25, 2002 -
21 comments
A Sad Day. Sometimes it
seems like all the people I admire die before their time. It's a long list:
Dan
Eldon,
Ned Gillette,
Ciriello,
Galen
Rowell,
Alex
Lowe,
Dan
Osman, (plus many others), and now:
Goran
Kropp, died a few days ago. "The Crazy Swede" became famous for
riding a bicycle from Stockholm to Everest, climbing it solo and without oxygen,
and riding back. This story is told in
Ultimate
High:My Everest Odyssey.
posted by ig
on Oct 3, 2002 -
7 comments
Originator of term "Shareware" Dies Bob Wallace, was born in Washington, D.C. in 1949, the author of PC-WRITE, and one of three persons credited with coining the term "Shareware" was found dead at his Northern California home on Friday, September 20th, 2002. In 1978, Bob joined Microsoft (the company that wrote MS DOS for IBM) when the company had only ten employees. He was employee number 9. Five years later, Bob decided to break with Microsoft (which by then had grown to company of over 300 employees) and establish his own company: Quicksoft. Among Quicksoft's innovations in software design and marketing was the "shareware" concept. Cause of death was determined to be pneumonia.
posted by jackspace
on Sep 25, 2002 -
24 comments
Dunkin' Donuts founder passes on - From a single shop in Quincy, Mass. to over 5000 stores around the globe, William Rosenberg created what is probably world's most recognizable donut and coffee chain. (Well, maybe that's because I live in New England, where there's always a DD location within a block radius.) Rosenberg was 86.
posted by MediaMan
on Sep 22, 2002 -
31 comments
It's 25 Years Ago Today Since Maria Callas Died. There's a badly designed but well-intentioned and informative Italian website to commemorate the anniversary and there's the film
Callas Forever, directed by one of her best friends (and the director of many of her most memorable operas,
Franco Zefirelli. It
premiered today. Mozart's
Requiem was also played at the concert held in her honour
tonight in Athens. I can't help thinking, though, that the Web is sorely lacking in resources about one of the greatest, most goosebump-provoking singers who ever lived. In fact, classical singers and classical music in general seem very (
increasingly) badly served. Even the glorious
Andante magazine, which I
recently linked to, looks like it's disappeared...
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Sep 16, 2002 -
21 comments
Timmy leaves his Princess. Josh Ryan Evans, the actor who played Timmy on my favorite soap opera (
Passions) died Monday evening from a heart condition.
What's creepy is that the exact same day on the show, his character died.
The producers are editing out anything to do with Timmy, although I really hope that there's a legitimate memorial on the show for the character. He's been the soul of the series, and he simply can't be replaced.
Of course, I expect Tabitha to go full on evil now...
posted by Pinwiz
on Aug 6, 2002 -
55 comments
John B Spencer died in March. He was 57 though the first time I saw him in about 1986 he looked about 86 so his early demise isn't that much of a surprise.
No one will have heard of him but he was brilliant. Truly brilliant, in that he lit up all around him and inspired the pathetic likes of me. Read his lyrics, hear his albums and just sit and wonder at the genius of the public to ignore such talent. Sorry, my blog doesn't appear to be publishing and I didn't want his death to go unremarked.
Google doesn't offer much but
this is good enough.
posted by Fat Buddha
on Jul 12, 2002 -
1 comment
The King of the Jukebox who disturbed the status quo They called rock music
jump blues during the World War II era, and this
amazingly talented clown was its master, with over fifty Top 10 R&B hits --
eighteen reached #1 -- between 1942 and 1951. Chuck Berry identified with him
"more than any other artist." James Brown said,
"He was everything" and considered him one of the earliest rappers. A pioneer of
music video, the first black artist to
cross over from the "race" market to a white audience and a
central link between big bands and rock, he was a primary influence on
Bill Haley,
Ray Charles and B.B. King, who once said,
"I wanted to be like him." Rest in peace, Louis Jordan. [Dozens of one-minute song clips
here]
posted by mediareport
on Jul 10, 2002 -
11 comments
Director John Frankenheimer is dead. I don't want to make this out to be one of those "random celebrity dies and is suddenly hailed as a genius" things, but Frankenheimer's made quite a few
damn good movies (and, yes, some bad ones). While his
later works weren't nearly as great as some of his
earlier films, his gift for filming action never went away: his 1998 film
Ronin wound up on
several lists of the "best car chases on film". He was supposed to helm the upcoming
Exorcist prequel, but failing health forced him to step aside. Despite the dodgy source material, I would have really liked to see Frankenheimer's take on it. He'll be missed.
posted by toddshot
on Jul 6, 2002 -
34 comments
A great music editor passes on. Timothy White, editor-in-chief of
Billboard Magazine, died suddenly of a heart attack today. He was a fixture of music journalism. He and his bow-tie will be missed.
posted by aeiou
on Jun 27, 2002 -
4 comments
Barbie creator, Mattel founder Handler dies More than one billion Barbies have been sold in 150 countries and has inspired love from girls everywhere and pure hatred from feminists everywhere.
"The impossibly well-endowed doll -- her original figure would be about 39-18-33 if she were human -- has infuriated feminists, inspired artists and intrigued academics around the world. Barbie even was placed in the official "America's Time Capsule" buried in 1976." Can you think of any other toy who has brought about as much ferver as Barbie???
posted by gloege
on Apr 29, 2002 -
30 comments
