Harold Hunter
RIP
<img src="http://img.timeinc.net/skate/content/images/05/harold1m.jpg" alt=" - " />
RIP
<img src="http://img.timeinc.net/skate/content/images/05/harold1m.jpg" alt=" - " />
Dropping Like Flies
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060225/ap_on_en_tv/obit_knotts LOS ANGELES - Don Knotts, the skinny, lovable nerd who kept generations of television audiences laughing as bumbling Deputy Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show," has died. He was 81.
Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs "The Andy Griffith Show," and another Knotts hit, "Three's Company."
Unspecified health problems had forced him to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown in August 2005.
The West Virginia-born actor's half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and five Emmies.
The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the top: The others are "I Love Lucy" and "Seinfeld." The 249 episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.
As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.
Knotts, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the Fife character and doesn't mind being remembered that way.
His favorite episodes, he said, were "The Pickle Story," where Aunt Bea makes pickles no one can eat, and "Barney and the Choir," where no one can stop him from singing.
"I can't sing. It makes me sad that I can't sing or dance well enough to be in a musical, but I'm just not talented in that way," he lamented. "It's one of my weaknesses."
Knotts appeared on six other television shows. In 1979, Knotts replaced Norman Fell on "Three's Company," playing the would-be swinger landlord to John Ritter, Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt.
Early in his TV career, he was one of the original cast members of "The Steve Allen Show," the comedy-variety show that ran from 1956-61. He was one of a group of memorable comics backing Allen that included Louis Nye, Tom Poston and Bill "Jose Jimenez" Dana.
Knotts' G-rated films were family fun, not box-office blockbusters. In most, he ends up the hero and gets the girl â?? a girl who can see through his nervousness to the heart of gold.
In the part-animated 1964 film "The Incredible Mr. Limpet," Knotts played a meek clerk who turns into a fish after he is rejected by the Navy.
When it was announced in 1998 that Jim Carrey would star in a "Limpet" remake, Knotts responded: "I'm just flattered that someone of Carrey's caliber is remaking something I did. Now, if someone else did Barney Fife, THAT would be different."
In the 1967 film "The Reluctant Astronaut," co-starring Leslie Nielsen, Knotts' father enrolls his wimpy son â?? operator of a Kiddieland rocket ride â?? in NASA's space program. Knotts poses as a famous astronaut to the joy of his parents and hometown but is eventually exposed for what he really is, a janitor so terrified of heights he refuses to ride an airplane.
In the 1969 film "The Love God?," he was a geeky bird-watcher who is duped into becoming publisher of a naughty men's magazine and then becomes a national sex symbol. Eventually, he comes to his senses, leaves the big city and marries the sweet girl next door.
He was among an army of comedians from Buster Keaton to Jonathan Winters to liven up the 1963 megacomedy "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." Other films include "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" (1966); "The Shakiest Gun in the West," (1968); and a few Disney films such as "The Apple Dumpling Gang," (1974); "Gus," (1976); and "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo," (1977).
In 1998, he had a key role in the back-to-the-past movie "Pleasantville," playing a folksy television repairman whose supercharged remote control sends a teen boy and his sister into a TV sitcom past.
Knotts began his show biz career even before he graduated from high school, performing as a ventriloquist at local clubs and churches. He majored in speech at West Virginia University, then took off for the big city.
"I went to New York cold. On a $100 bill. Bummed a ride," he recalled in a visit to his hometown of Morgantown, where city officials renamed a street for him in 1998.
Within six months, Knotts had taken a job on a radio Western called "Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders," playing a wisecracking, know-it-all handyman. He stayed with it for five years, then came his series TV debut on "The Steve Allen Show."
He married Kay Metz in 1948, the year he graduated from college. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1969. Knotts later married, then divorced Lara Lee Szuchna.
In recent years, he said he had no plans to retire, traveling with theater productions and appearing in print and TV ads for Kodiak pressure treated wood.
The world laughed at Knotts, but it also laughed with him.
He treasured his comedic roles and could point to only one role that wasn't funny, a brief stint on the daytime drama "Search for Tomorrow."
"That's the only serious thing I've done. I don't miss that," Knotts said.
Knotts died Friday night of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, said Paul Ward, a spokesman for the cable network TV Land, which airs "The Andy Griffith Show," and another Knotts hit, "Three's Company."
Unspecified health problems had forced him to cancel an appearance in his native Morgantown in August 2005.
The West Virginia-born actor's half-century career included seven TV series and more than 25 films, but it was the Griffith show that brought him TV immortality and five Emmies.
The show ran from 1960-68, and was in the top 10 of the Nielsen ratings each season, including a No. 1 ranking its final year. It is one of only three series in TV history to bow out at the top: The others are "I Love Lucy" and "Seinfeld." The 249 episodes have appeared frequently in reruns and have spawned a large, active network of fan clubs.
As the bug-eyed deputy to Griffith, Knotts carried in his shirt pocket the one bullet he was allowed after shooting himself in the foot. The constant fumbling, a recurring sight gag, was typical of his self-deprecating humor.
Knotts, whose shy, soft-spoken manner was unlike his high-strung characters, once said he was most proud of the Fife character and doesn't mind being remembered that way.
His favorite episodes, he said, were "The Pickle Story," where Aunt Bea makes pickles no one can eat, and "Barney and the Choir," where no one can stop him from singing.
"I can't sing. It makes me sad that I can't sing or dance well enough to be in a musical, but I'm just not talented in that way," he lamented. "It's one of my weaknesses."
Knotts appeared on six other television shows. In 1979, Knotts replaced Norman Fell on "Three's Company," playing the would-be swinger landlord to John Ritter, Suzanne Somers and Joyce DeWitt.
Early in his TV career, he was one of the original cast members of "The Steve Allen Show," the comedy-variety show that ran from 1956-61. He was one of a group of memorable comics backing Allen that included Louis Nye, Tom Poston and Bill "Jose Jimenez" Dana.
Knotts' G-rated films were family fun, not box-office blockbusters. In most, he ends up the hero and gets the girl â?? a girl who can see through his nervousness to the heart of gold.
In the part-animated 1964 film "The Incredible Mr. Limpet," Knotts played a meek clerk who turns into a fish after he is rejected by the Navy.
When it was announced in 1998 that Jim Carrey would star in a "Limpet" remake, Knotts responded: "I'm just flattered that someone of Carrey's caliber is remaking something I did. Now, if someone else did Barney Fife, THAT would be different."
In the 1967 film "The Reluctant Astronaut," co-starring Leslie Nielsen, Knotts' father enrolls his wimpy son â?? operator of a Kiddieland rocket ride â?? in NASA's space program. Knotts poses as a famous astronaut to the joy of his parents and hometown but is eventually exposed for what he really is, a janitor so terrified of heights he refuses to ride an airplane.
In the 1969 film "The Love God?," he was a geeky bird-watcher who is duped into becoming publisher of a naughty men's magazine and then becomes a national sex symbol. Eventually, he comes to his senses, leaves the big city and marries the sweet girl next door.
He was among an army of comedians from Buster Keaton to Jonathan Winters to liven up the 1963 megacomedy "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World." Other films include "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" (1966); "The Shakiest Gun in the West," (1968); and a few Disney films such as "The Apple Dumpling Gang," (1974); "Gus," (1976); and "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo," (1977).
In 1998, he had a key role in the back-to-the-past movie "Pleasantville," playing a folksy television repairman whose supercharged remote control sends a teen boy and his sister into a TV sitcom past.
Knotts began his show biz career even before he graduated from high school, performing as a ventriloquist at local clubs and churches. He majored in speech at West Virginia University, then took off for the big city.
"I went to New York cold. On a $100 bill. Bummed a ride," he recalled in a visit to his hometown of Morgantown, where city officials renamed a street for him in 1998.
Within six months, Knotts had taken a job on a radio Western called "Bobby Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders," playing a wisecracking, know-it-all handyman. He stayed with it for five years, then came his series TV debut on "The Steve Allen Show."
He married Kay Metz in 1948, the year he graduated from college. The couple had two children before divorcing in 1969. Knotts later married, then divorced Lara Lee Szuchna.
In recent years, he said he had no plans to retire, traveling with theater productions and appearing in print and TV ads for Kodiak pressure treated wood.
The world laughed at Knotts, but it also laughed with him.
He treasured his comedic roles and could point to only one role that wasn't funny, a brief stint on the daytime drama "Search for Tomorrow."
"That's the only serious thing I've done. I don't miss that," Knotts said.
I meant to post this earlier this week. The gold standard in sports broadcasting, Curt Gowdy, passed away this week. For any of us old folks who were in any way interested in sports, he was the man. And anyone who grew up in New England/Boston and was a BoSox fan, he was the real deal.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11478921/
Keith Olbermann's tribute:
Childhood unofficially ended for several generations of sports fans Yesterday. Curt Gowdy died. It is impossible to comprehend his ubiquitousness in the sports world from the 1960's to the late 1970's. A peck of controversial comments by sports casters and sports heroes alike, consider the impossibility of anyone producing a resume that looked like this.
Curt Gowdy announced 13 World Series and nine Super Bowls, eight Olympics, 14 Rose Bowls, 24 college basketball championships and 16 baseball all-star games. Nearly all of that resume here at NBC. Plus, there were two years announcing the games of the New York Yankees and 10 of the Boston Red Sox. Never overselling, rarely yelling, Curt Gowdy sounded, in the words of essayist John Updike, like everybody's brother-in-law.
And there was a sincerity to the man. NBC sportscaster Al Michaels told me on the radio on Monday that when he was a student at Arizona State he asked Gowdy for career advice and Gowdy responded by listening to tapes of Michaels' college broadcasts. Curt Gowdy suffering for several years from leukemia, died in Florida on Monday. He was 86 years old.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11478921/
Keith Olbermann's tribute:
Childhood unofficially ended for several generations of sports fans Yesterday. Curt Gowdy died. It is impossible to comprehend his ubiquitousness in the sports world from the 1960's to the late 1970's. A peck of controversial comments by sports casters and sports heroes alike, consider the impossibility of anyone producing a resume that looked like this.
Curt Gowdy announced 13 World Series and nine Super Bowls, eight Olympics, 14 Rose Bowls, 24 college basketball championships and 16 baseball all-star games. Nearly all of that resume here at NBC. Plus, there were two years announcing the games of the New York Yankees and 10 of the Boston Red Sox. Never overselling, rarely yelling, Curt Gowdy sounded, in the words of essayist John Updike, like everybody's brother-in-law.
And there was a sincerity to the man. NBC sportscaster Al Michaels told me on the radio on Monday that when he was a student at Arizona State he asked Gowdy for career advice and Gowdy responded by listening to tapes of Michaels' college broadcasts. Curt Gowdy suffering for several years from leukemia, died in Florida on Monday. He was 86 years old.
From CNN:
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) – Dennis Weaver, the slow-witted deputy Chester Goode in the TV classic western "Gunsmoke" and the New Mexico deputy solving New York crime in "McCloud," has died. The actor was 81.
Weaver died of complications from cancer Friday at his home in Ridgway, in southwestern Colorado, his publicist Julian Myers said.
Damn, three actors in two days. They really are dropping like….
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) – Dennis Weaver, the slow-witted deputy Chester Goode in the TV classic western "Gunsmoke" and the New Mexico deputy solving New York crime in "McCloud," has died. The actor was 81.
Weaver died of complications from cancer Friday at his home in Ridgway, in southwestern Colorado, his publicist Julian Myers said.
Damn, three actors in two days. They really are dropping like….
Originally posted by Jaguar:A toxicology report has shown late actor Chris Penn was highly intoxicated with a combination of substances including marijuana and morphine at the time of his death last month. The Reservoir Dogs star's official cause of death was an enlarged heart, which weighed over 1.54 pounds, and would have been exacerbated by the cocktail of drugs in his system. Besides marijuana and morphine, Penn's system also contained Valium, codeine and an antihistamine. The 40-year-old brother of Sean Penn, weighed over 20 stone (280 pounds) at the time of his death and had a history of drug abuse. He was found dead in his Santa Monica, California, apartment on 24 January.
Originally posted by vansmack:It's a publicity stunt! :p
Originally posted by Random Citizen:He was supposed to be at Sundance this week to premier his new movie "Darwin Awards" - conspiracy theorists may begin…..
Actor Chris Penn Found Dead
Santa Monica police are currently on the scene investigating the circumstances.
<img src="http://v9.indiewire.com/ots/brokeback.jpg" alt=" - " />
March 3, 2056
Hollywood, CA, (AP wire service)
One of these generic interchangeable perfect pretty actors died today but no one is sure exactly which one or can tell them apart or even remember their names.
Their only claim to fame is having starred in a gimmicky Hollywood motion picture called Buggery Mountain in 2005, considered "ground-breaking" in those simpler times, due to a contrived homosexual angle which was little more than the usual elitist slap at mainstream American culture and anything held dear or cherished by ordinary citizens, in this case cowboys and their dreaded heterosexual masculinity.
The same was done to Marines in an earlier Oscar-winning picture called American Buttfuck.
It's plain and simple hostility and sniffing contempt masking as "art" in a cheesy soap opera's clothing.
It's not like 50 to 100 years ago when comic actors like Don Knotts had personality, presence, and a humanity which transcended their work and left the public feeling as if they'd lost a friend when they died.
Instead of being associated with some mere sociopolitical bill of goods or narcissistic agenda.
In their wake are these sculpted icy-cold "artistes" and craftsmen and Scientologists who are emotional and personal blank slates a million miles removed from their audience and are awarded for doing cheap Truman Capote impressions or donning Hopalong Cassidy gear and sucking each other off.
This in lieu of anything like original thought or genuine risk-taking.
Or anything stemming from the heart and viscera, as opposed the mind, pseudo-intellect, and colon.
March 3, 2056
Hollywood, CA, (AP wire service)
One of these generic interchangeable perfect pretty actors died today but no one is sure exactly which one or can tell them apart or even remember their names.
Their only claim to fame is having starred in a gimmicky Hollywood motion picture called Buggery Mountain in 2005, considered "ground-breaking" in those simpler times, due to a contrived homosexual angle which was little more than the usual elitist slap at mainstream American culture and anything held dear or cherished by ordinary citizens, in this case cowboys and their dreaded heterosexual masculinity.
The same was done to Marines in an earlier Oscar-winning picture called American Buttfuck.
It's plain and simple hostility and sniffing contempt masking as "art" in a cheesy soap opera's clothing.
It's not like 50 to 100 years ago when comic actors like Don Knotts had personality, presence, and a humanity which transcended their work and left the public feeling as if they'd lost a friend when they died.
Instead of being associated with some mere sociopolitical bill of goods or narcissistic agenda.
In their wake are these sculpted icy-cold "artistes" and craftsmen and Scientologists who are emotional and personal blank slates a million miles removed from their audience and are awarded for doing cheap Truman Capote impressions or donning Hopalong Cassidy gear and sucking each other off.
This in lieu of anything like original thought or genuine risk-taking.
Or anything stemming from the heart and viscera, as opposed the mind, pseudo-intellect, and colon.
Dana Reeve, widow of Christopher Reeve, dies at 44
SHORT HILLS, New Jersey (AP) – Dana Reeve, who fought for better treatments and possible cures for paralysis through the Christopher Reeve Foundation, named for her late actor-husband, has died, the foundation said. She was 44.
Reeve died late Monday of lung cancer, said Kathy Lewis, President and CEO of the foundation.
"On behalf of the entire Board of Directors and staff of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, we are extremely saddened by the death of Dana Reeve, whose grace and courage under the most difficult of circumstances was a source of comfort and inspiration to all of us," Lewis said in a statement.
SHORT HILLS, New Jersey (AP) – Dana Reeve, who fought for better treatments and possible cures for paralysis through the Christopher Reeve Foundation, named for her late actor-husband, has died, the foundation said. She was 44.
Reeve died late Monday of lung cancer, said Kathy Lewis, President and CEO of the foundation.
"On behalf of the entire Board of Directors and staff of the Christopher Reeve Foundation, we are extremely saddened by the death of Dana Reeve, whose grace and courage under the most difficult of circumstances was a source of comfort and inspiration to all of us," Lewis said in a statement.
Kirby Puckett, rip.
Originally posted by Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer:I second that.
Kirby Puckett, rip.
A very lucky duo…
<img src="http://www.vnn.vn/dataimages/original/images367983_sieunhan2.jpg" alt=" - " />
<img src="http://www.vnn.vn/dataimages/original/images367983_sieunhan2.jpg" alt=" - " />
Originally posted by Chaz, Lover of all Beings:
Dana Reeve, widow of Christopher Reeve, dies at 44
Reeve died late Monday of lung cancer, said Kathy Lewis, President and CEO of the foundation.
Wow, this is turning into a big week for dying.
March 7, 2006, 9:13AM
African musical legend Ali Farka Toure dies in Mali
Associated Press
BAMAKO, Mali â?? Ali Farka Toure, a traditional African musician who won two Grammy Awards, died Tuesday in his native Mali after a long illness. He was in his late 60s.
Mali's Culture Ministry said Toure died at his home in the capital, Bamako, after a long struggle with an unidentified illness, the ministry.
Toure, one of Africa's most famous performers, played a traditional Malian stringed instrument called the gurke.
He was best-known overseas for his 1995 collaboration with American guitarist Ry Cooder on Talking Timbuktu, which netted him his first of two Grammys.
He won another Grammy this year in the traditional world music album category for his In the Heart of the Moon album, performed with fellow Malian Toumani Diabate.
Across his deeply impoverished west African nation, people mourned Toure's passing and radio stations suspended regular play, sending Toure's signature lilting sounds out over airwaves instead.
Toure was born in 1939 in the northern Sahara Desert trading post of Timbuktu. Like many Africans of his generation, the exact date of his birth was not recorded.
Toure learned the gurkel at an early age, later also taking up the guitar. He cited many Western musicians for inspiration, including Ray Charles, Otis Redding and John Lee Hooker.
Toure spent much of his older age in his childhood town of Niafunke, which has become a pilgrimage spot for many music-loving Africans and tourists seeking one of the original progenitors of a genre known as Mali Blues.
March 7, 2006, 9:13AM
African musical legend Ali Farka Toure dies in Mali
Associated Press
BAMAKO, Mali â?? Ali Farka Toure, a traditional African musician who won two Grammy Awards, died Tuesday in his native Mali after a long illness. He was in his late 60s.
Mali's Culture Ministry said Toure died at his home in the capital, Bamako, after a long struggle with an unidentified illness, the ministry.
Toure, one of Africa's most famous performers, played a traditional Malian stringed instrument called the gurke.
He was best-known overseas for his 1995 collaboration with American guitarist Ry Cooder on Talking Timbuktu, which netted him his first of two Grammys.
He won another Grammy this year in the traditional world music album category for his In the Heart of the Moon album, performed with fellow Malian Toumani Diabate.
Across his deeply impoverished west African nation, people mourned Toure's passing and radio stations suspended regular play, sending Toure's signature lilting sounds out over airwaves instead.
Toure was born in 1939 in the northern Sahara Desert trading post of Timbuktu. Like many Africans of his generation, the exact date of his birth was not recorded.
Toure learned the gurkel at an early age, later also taking up the guitar. He cited many Western musicians for inspiration, including Ray Charles, Otis Redding and John Lee Hooker.
Toure spent much of his older age in his childhood town of Niafunke, which has become a pilgrimage spot for many music-loving Africans and tourists seeking one of the original progenitors of a genre known as Mali Blues.
Add another one to this week's toll.
I loved his photographs.
Filmmaker Gordon Parks Dies at 93
By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
31 minutes ago
Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood's first major black director with "The Learning Tree" and the hit "Shaft," died Tuesday, a family member said. He was 93.
Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer, died in New York, his nephew, Charles Parks, said in a telephone interview from Lawrence, Kan.
"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness."
He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968.
But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.
"Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed."
In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family.
"The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well directed.
In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.
The detective drama "Shaft," which came out in 1971 and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972.
He also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Parks was born Nov. 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kan., the youngest of 15 children. In his 1990 autobiography, "Voices in the Mirror," he remembered it as a world of racism and poverty, but also a world where his parents gave their children love, discipline and religious faith.
He went through a series of jobs as a teen and young man, including piano player and railroad dining car waiter. The breakthrough came when he was about 25, when he bought a used camera in a pawn shop for $7.50. He became a freelance fashion photographer, went on to Vogue magazine and then to Life in 1948.
"Reflecting now, I realize that, even within the limits of my childhood vision, I was on a search for pride, meanwhile taking measurable glimpses of how certain blacks, who were fed up with racism, rebelled against it," he wrote.
When he accepted an award from Wichita State University in May 1991, he said it was "another step forward in my making peace with Kansas and Kansas making peace with me."
"I dream terrible dreams, terribly violent dreams," he said. "The doctors say it's because I suppressed so much anger and hatred from my youth. I bottled it up and used it constructively."
In his autobiography, he recalled that being Life's only black photographer put him in a peculiar position when he set out to cover the civil rights movement.
"Life magazine was eager to penetrate their ranks for stories, but the black movement thought of Life as just another white establishment out of tune with their cause," he wrote. He said his aim was to become "an objective reporter, but one with a subjective heart."
The story of young Flavio prompted Life readers to send in $30,000, enabling his family to build a home, and Flavio received treatment for his asthma in an American clinic. By the 1970s, he had a family and a job as a security guard, but more recently the home built in 1961 has become overcrowded and run-down.
Still, Flavio stayed in touch with Parks off and on, and in 1997 Parks said, "If I saw him tomorrow in the same conditions, I would do the whole thing over again."
In addition to novels, poetry and his autobiographical writings, Parks' writing credits included nonfiction such as "Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture," 1948, and a 1971 book of essays called "Born Black."
His other film credits included "The Super Cops," 1974; "Aaron Loves Angela," 1975; and "Leadbelly," 1976.
Recalling the making of "The Learning Tree," he wrote: "A lot of people of all colors were anxious about the breakthrough, and I was anxious to make the most of it. The wait had been far too long. Just remembering that no black had been given a chance to direct a motion picture in Hollywood since it was established kept me going."
Last month, health concerns had kept Parks from accepting the William Allen White Foundation National Citation in Kansas, but he said in a taped presentation that he still considered the state his home and wanted to be buried in Fort Scott.
Two years ago, Fort Scott Community College established the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity.
Jill Warford, its executive director, said Tuesday that Parks "had a very rough start in life and he overcame so much, but was such a good person and kind person that he never let the bad things that happened to him make him bitter."
___
Associated Press writer Garance Burke in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.
I loved his photographs.
Filmmaker Gordon Parks Dies at 93
By POLLY ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer
31 minutes ago
Gordon Parks, who captured the struggles and triumphs of black America as a photographer for Life magazine and then became Hollywood's first major black director with "The Learning Tree" and the hit "Shaft," died Tuesday, a family member said. He was 93.
Parks, who also wrote fiction and was an accomplished composer, died in New York, his nephew, Charles Parks, said in a telephone interview from Lawrence, Kan.
"Nothing came easy," Parks wrote in his autobiography. "I was just born with a need to explore every tool shop of my mind, and with long searching and hard work. I became devoted to my restlessness."
He covered everything from fashion to politics to sports during his 20 years at Life, from 1948 to 1968.
But as a photographer, he was perhaps best known for his gritty photo essays on the grinding effects of poverty in the United States and abroad and on the spirit of the civil rights movement.
"Those special problems spawned by poverty and crime touched me more, and I dug into them with more enthusiasm," he said. "Working at them again revealed the superiority of the camera to explore the dilemmas they posed."
In 1961, his photographs in Life of a poor, ailing Brazilian boy named Flavio da Silva brought donations that saved the boy and purchased a new home for him and his family.
"The Learning Tree" was Parks' first film, in 1969. It was based on his 1963 autobiographical novel of the same name, in which the young hero grapples with fear and racism as well as first love and schoolboy triumphs. Parks wrote the score as well directed.
In 1989, "The Learning Tree" was among the first 25 American movies to be placed on the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. The registry is intended to highlight films of particular cultural, historical or aesthetic importance.
The detective drama "Shaft," which came out in 1971 and starred Richard Roundtree, was a major hit and spawned a series of black-oriented films. Parks himself directed a sequel, "Shaft's Big Score," in 1972.
He also published books of poetry and wrote musical compositions including "Martin," a ballet about the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Parks was born Nov. 30, 1912, in Fort Scott, Kan., the youngest of 15 children. In his 1990 autobiography, "Voices in the Mirror," he remembered it as a world of racism and poverty, but also a world where his parents gave their children love, discipline and religious faith.
He went through a series of jobs as a teen and young man, including piano player and railroad dining car waiter. The breakthrough came when he was about 25, when he bought a used camera in a pawn shop for $7.50. He became a freelance fashion photographer, went on to Vogue magazine and then to Life in 1948.
"Reflecting now, I realize that, even within the limits of my childhood vision, I was on a search for pride, meanwhile taking measurable glimpses of how certain blacks, who were fed up with racism, rebelled against it," he wrote.
When he accepted an award from Wichita State University in May 1991, he said it was "another step forward in my making peace with Kansas and Kansas making peace with me."
"I dream terrible dreams, terribly violent dreams," he said. "The doctors say it's because I suppressed so much anger and hatred from my youth. I bottled it up and used it constructively."
In his autobiography, he recalled that being Life's only black photographer put him in a peculiar position when he set out to cover the civil rights movement.
"Life magazine was eager to penetrate their ranks for stories, but the black movement thought of Life as just another white establishment out of tune with their cause," he wrote. He said his aim was to become "an objective reporter, but one with a subjective heart."
The story of young Flavio prompted Life readers to send in $30,000, enabling his family to build a home, and Flavio received treatment for his asthma in an American clinic. By the 1970s, he had a family and a job as a security guard, but more recently the home built in 1961 has become overcrowded and run-down.
Still, Flavio stayed in touch with Parks off and on, and in 1997 Parks said, "If I saw him tomorrow in the same conditions, I would do the whole thing over again."
In addition to novels, poetry and his autobiographical writings, Parks' writing credits included nonfiction such as "Camera Portraits: Techniques and Principles of Documentary Portraiture," 1948, and a 1971 book of essays called "Born Black."
His other film credits included "The Super Cops," 1974; "Aaron Loves Angela," 1975; and "Leadbelly," 1976.
Recalling the making of "The Learning Tree," he wrote: "A lot of people of all colors were anxious about the breakthrough, and I was anxious to make the most of it. The wait had been far too long. Just remembering that no black had been given a chance to direct a motion picture in Hollywood since it was established kept me going."
Last month, health concerns had kept Parks from accepting the William Allen White Foundation National Citation in Kansas, but he said in a taped presentation that he still considered the state his home and wanted to be buried in Fort Scott.
Two years ago, Fort Scott Community College established the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity.
Jill Warford, its executive director, said Tuesday that Parks "had a very rough start in life and he overcame so much, but was such a good person and kind person that he never let the bad things that happened to him make him bitter."
___
Associated Press writer Garance Burke in Kansas City, Mo., contributed to this report.
New Jersey native son, Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski
Former game show host Peter Tomarken killed in SoCal plane crash
- By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer
Monday, March 13, 2006
(03-13) 16:41 PST Santa Monica, Calif. (AP) –
Peter Tomarken, host of the hit 1980s game show "Press Your Luck," and his wife were killed Monday when their small plane crashed in Santa Monica Bay shortly after takeoff on a volunteer medical transportation flight, authorities said. Searchers were looking for a third person reported aboard.
The bodies of Tomarken, 63, and wife Kathleen Abigail Tomarken, 41, were identified by the Los Angeles County coroner's office, said coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey.
Tomarken appeared in at least four other game shows in addition to "Press Your Luck," which was well known for contestants shouting the slogan "Big bucks, no whammies!"
The pilot was a volunteer for Angel Flight West, a nonprofit organization that provides free air transportation for needy medical patients, said organization spokesman Doug Griffith, who withheld the pilot's name. The plane was flying to San Diego to pick up a passenger who needed to get to UCLA Medical Center for treatment, he said.
The Beech A36 went down about 9:35 a.m. while apparently trying to return to Santa Monica Airport because of engine trouble, said FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer. The airport is about two miles inland from the ocean.
The plane, found in 19 feet of water 200 yards offshore, was registered to Tomarken, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
Rescue boats and divers converged on the scene, about a half-mile southwest of Santa Monica Pier. The aircraft, appearing largely intact, was later towed onto the beach.
Witness Luis Garr told KNBC-TV that the plane was silent as it "kind of landed into the water."
"I didn't hear any engine. It's a big splash, a huge splash, huge splash. Then it started going down. The wings were still floating so I was, `Get out! Get out!' because the door was still available to get out and nobody came out. So the plane kept going down, down, down. It was just the tail. A surfer started swimming toward the plane and he was the first one on the scene. The lifeguard showed up. … It had gone down."
Tomarken's agent, Fred Wostbrock, said his client's first game show was "Hit Man!," which ran 13 weeks on NBC, followed by the four-year hit "Press Your Luck" on CBS.
"He was always a fun guy to be around, and he just loved the genre of game shows," Wostbrock said.
In 1987, Tomarken was on ABC with a show called "Bargain Hunters," and then went to the syndicated "Wipe-Out" in 1990. He returned to game shows in 2000 with the program "Paranoia."
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/03/13/state/n161753S15.DTL
- By DAISY NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer
Monday, March 13, 2006
(03-13) 16:41 PST Santa Monica, Calif. (AP) –
Peter Tomarken, host of the hit 1980s game show "Press Your Luck," and his wife were killed Monday when their small plane crashed in Santa Monica Bay shortly after takeoff on a volunteer medical transportation flight, authorities said. Searchers were looking for a third person reported aboard.
The bodies of Tomarken, 63, and wife Kathleen Abigail Tomarken, 41, were identified by the Los Angeles County coroner's office, said coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey.
Tomarken appeared in at least four other game shows in addition to "Press Your Luck," which was well known for contestants shouting the slogan "Big bucks, no whammies!"
The pilot was a volunteer for Angel Flight West, a nonprofit organization that provides free air transportation for needy medical patients, said organization spokesman Doug Griffith, who withheld the pilot's name. The plane was flying to San Diego to pick up a passenger who needed to get to UCLA Medical Center for treatment, he said.
The Beech A36 went down about 9:35 a.m. while apparently trying to return to Santa Monica Airport because of engine trouble, said FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer. The airport is about two miles inland from the ocean.
The plane, found in 19 feet of water 200 yards offshore, was registered to Tomarken, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
Rescue boats and divers converged on the scene, about a half-mile southwest of Santa Monica Pier. The aircraft, appearing largely intact, was later towed onto the beach.
Witness Luis Garr told KNBC-TV that the plane was silent as it "kind of landed into the water."
"I didn't hear any engine. It's a big splash, a huge splash, huge splash. Then it started going down. The wings were still floating so I was, `Get out! Get out!' because the door was still available to get out and nobody came out. So the plane kept going down, down, down. It was just the tail. A surfer started swimming toward the plane and he was the first one on the scene. The lifeguard showed up. … It had gone down."
Tomarken's agent, Fred Wostbrock, said his client's first game show was "Hit Man!," which ran 13 weeks on NBC, followed by the four-year hit "Press Your Luck" on CBS.
"He was always a fun guy to be around, and he just loved the genre of game shows," Wostbrock said.
In 1987, Tomarken was on ABC with a show called "Bargain Hunters," and then went to the syndicated "Wipe-Out" in 1990. He returned to game shows in 2000 with the program "Paranoia."
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/03/13/state/n161753S15.DTL
Actress Maureen Stapleton Dies at 80
(Not to be confused with Jean Stapleton)
By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 26 minutes ago
Maureen Stapleton, an Oscar-winning character actress whose subtle vulnerability and down-to-earth toughness earned her dramatic and comedic roles on stage, screen, and television, died Monday. She was 80.
The longtime smoker died from chronic pulmonary disease in the Berkshire hills town of Lenox, where she had been living, said her son, Daniel Allentuck.
Stapleton, whose unremarkable, matronly appearance belied her star personality and talent, won an Academy Award for her supporting role as anarchist-writer Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's 1981 film "Reds," about a left-wing American journalist who journeys to Russia to cover the Bolshevik Revolution.
To prepare for the role, Stapleton said she tried reading Goldman's autobiography, but soon chucked it out of boredom.
"There are many roads to good acting," Stapleton, known for her straightforwardness, said in her 1995 autobiography, "Hell of a Life." "I've been asked repeatedly what the 'key' to acting is, and as far as I'm concerned, the main thing is to keep the audience awake."
Stapleton was nominated several times for a supporting actress Oscar, including for her first film role in 1958's "Lonelyhearts"; "Airport" in 1970; and Woody Allen's "Interiors" in 1978.
Her other film credits include the 1963 musical "Bye Bye Birdie" opposite Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke, "Johnny Dangerously," "Cocoon," "The Money Pit" and "Addicted to Love."
In television, she earned an Emmy for "Among the Paths to Eden" in 1967. She was nominated for "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom" in 1975; "The Gathering" in 1977; and "Miss Rose White" in 1992.
After moving to the Berkshires, Stapleton was a regular at the Candlelight Inn, a favorite gathering spot for actors that has since closed, said Elizabeth Aspenlieder, an actress with the Lenox-based Shakespeare & Co. acting group.
"Maureen would be sitting at the bar, ferociously playing charades," said Aspenlieder, who remembered Stapleton as a fun-loving eccentric who would often be seen wearing a housedress and pair of furry boots.
"She was always warm and inviting," Aspenlieder said.
Brought up in a strict Irish Catholic family with an alcoholic father, Stapleton left home in Troy, N.Y., right after high school. With $100 to her name, she came to New York and began studying at the Herbert Berghof Acting School and later at the Actor's Studio, which turned out the likes of Marlon Brando, Paul Newman and Julia Roberts.
Stapleton soon made her Broadway debut in Burgess Meredith's 1946 production of "The Playboy of the Western World."
At age 24, she became a success as Serafina Delle Rose in Tennessee Williams' Broadway hit "The Rose Tattoo," and won a Tony Award. She appeared in numerous other stage productions, including Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic" and Neil Simon's "The Gingerbread Lady," for which she won her second Tony in 1971.
She starred opposite Laurence Olivier in Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Stapleton's friendship with Williams was well-known and he wrote three plays for her, but she never appeared in any of them.
Along the way, she led a chaotic personal life, which her autobiography candidly described as including two failed marriages, numerous affairs, years of alcohol abuse and erratic parenting for her two children.
She often said auditioning was hard for her, but that it was just a part of acting, a job "that pays."
"When I was first in New York there was a girl who wanted to play 'St. Joan' to the point where it was scary. … I thought 'Don't ever want anything that bad," she recalled. "Just take what you get and like it while you do it, and forget it."
Cast throughout her career in supporting roles, Stapleton was content not playing a lead character, Allentuck said.
"I don't think she ever had unrealistic aspirations about her career," he said.
Beside Allentuck, Stapleton is survived by a daughter, Katharine Bambery, of Lenox and a brother, Jack Stapleton, of Troy, N.Y.
(Not to be confused with Jean Stapleton)
By ADAM GORLICK, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 26 minutes ago
Maureen Stapleton, an Oscar-winning character actress whose subtle vulnerability and down-to-earth toughness earned her dramatic and comedic roles on stage, screen, and television, died Monday. She was 80.
The longtime smoker died from chronic pulmonary disease in the Berkshire hills town of Lenox, where she had been living, said her son, Daniel Allentuck.
Stapleton, whose unremarkable, matronly appearance belied her star personality and talent, won an Academy Award for her supporting role as anarchist-writer Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty's 1981 film "Reds," about a left-wing American journalist who journeys to Russia to cover the Bolshevik Revolution.
To prepare for the role, Stapleton said she tried reading Goldman's autobiography, but soon chucked it out of boredom.
"There are many roads to good acting," Stapleton, known for her straightforwardness, said in her 1995 autobiography, "Hell of a Life." "I've been asked repeatedly what the 'key' to acting is, and as far as I'm concerned, the main thing is to keep the audience awake."
Stapleton was nominated several times for a supporting actress Oscar, including for her first film role in 1958's "Lonelyhearts"; "Airport" in 1970; and Woody Allen's "Interiors" in 1978.
Her other film credits include the 1963 musical "Bye Bye Birdie" opposite Ann-Margret and Dick Van Dyke, "Johnny Dangerously," "Cocoon," "The Money Pit" and "Addicted to Love."
In television, she earned an Emmy for "Among the Paths to Eden" in 1967. She was nominated for "Queen of the Stardust Ballroom" in 1975; "The Gathering" in 1977; and "Miss Rose White" in 1992.
After moving to the Berkshires, Stapleton was a regular at the Candlelight Inn, a favorite gathering spot for actors that has since closed, said Elizabeth Aspenlieder, an actress with the Lenox-based Shakespeare & Co. acting group.
"Maureen would be sitting at the bar, ferociously playing charades," said Aspenlieder, who remembered Stapleton as a fun-loving eccentric who would often be seen wearing a housedress and pair of furry boots.
"She was always warm and inviting," Aspenlieder said.
Brought up in a strict Irish Catholic family with an alcoholic father, Stapleton left home in Troy, N.Y., right after high school. With $100 to her name, she came to New York and began studying at the Herbert Berghof Acting School and later at the Actor's Studio, which turned out the likes of Marlon Brando, Paul Newman and Julia Roberts.
Stapleton soon made her Broadway debut in Burgess Meredith's 1946 production of "The Playboy of the Western World."
At age 24, she became a success as Serafina Delle Rose in Tennessee Williams' Broadway hit "The Rose Tattoo," and won a Tony Award. She appeared in numerous other stage productions, including Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic" and Neil Simon's "The Gingerbread Lady," for which she won her second Tony in 1971.
She starred opposite Laurence Olivier in Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." Stapleton's friendship with Williams was well-known and he wrote three plays for her, but she never appeared in any of them.
Along the way, she led a chaotic personal life, which her autobiography candidly described as including two failed marriages, numerous affairs, years of alcohol abuse and erratic parenting for her two children.
She often said auditioning was hard for her, but that it was just a part of acting, a job "that pays."
"When I was first in New York there was a girl who wanted to play 'St. Joan' to the point where it was scary. … I thought 'Don't ever want anything that bad," she recalled. "Just take what you get and like it while you do it, and forget it."
Cast throughout her career in supporting roles, Stapleton was content not playing a lead character, Allentuck said.
"I don't think she ever had unrealistic aspirations about her career," he said.
Beside Allentuck, Stapleton is survived by a daughter, Katharine Bambery, of Lenox and a brother, Jack Stapleton, of Troy, N.Y.
Originally posted by Venerable Bede:He must've gotten a Whammy.
Former game show host Peter Tomarken no whammies!"
<img src="http://www.choiceshirts.com/images/PL/-0/PL-00129A-md.jpg" alt=" - " />
BTW, the Whammy was created/animated by Savage Steve Holland, the animator who directed the classic film, Better Off Dead
Miss Deaf Texas struck by train, killed
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/14/beauty.queen.death.ap/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/03/14/beauty.queen.death.ap/index.html
'Hee Haw' Co-Host Buck Owens, 76, Dies
By GREG RISLING
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 25, 2006; 11:59 AM
LOS ANGELES – Singer Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like "Act Naturally" and brought the genre to TV on the long-running "Hee Haw," died Saturday. He was 76.
Owens died at his home, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997.
By GREG RISLING
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 25, 2006; 11:59 AM
LOS ANGELES – Singer Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like "Act Naturally" and brought the genre to TV on the long-running "Hee Haw," died Saturday. He was 76.
Owens died at his home, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997.