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R.I.P. Tag

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on October 02, 2017 13 Comments
Earlier today we blogged, based on a report by CBS News, that rocker Tom Petty had passed away. As we and the rest of country later learned, thanks to Hollywood gossip rag TMZ, CBS News was wrong and while he remains in critical condition, Petty is still alive.

Posted by Miriam Elman on September 20, 2017 3 Comments
Mitchell Flint, a former U.S. Navy fighter pilot during World War II who later became a founding member of Israel’s legendary first fighter squadron and flew dozens of missions on behalf of the fledgling Jewish state during its 1948 War of Independence, died of natural causes on Saturday (September 16) at his home in Los Angeles. In several prior posts, we described how Flint and other non-Israeli volunteers played a key role during the second phase of the 1948 war, when the combined armies of five Arab states threatened to overrun and cripple Israel and “throw the Jews into the sea”:

Posted by Mike LaChance on September 16, 2017 6 Comments
Harry Dean Stanton wasn't a leading man type, but he was versatile and could play complex characters in any genre. His credits include The Godfather II, Alien, Escape from New York, Repo Man, and Pretty in Pink, just to name a few. He passed away of natural causes yesterday at the age of 91.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 27, 2017 7 Comments
The horror movie genre has lost another great. First we lose George Romero. Now the Los Angeles County Coroner announced that Tobe Hooper is dead at the age of 74. They did not releases the cause of death. Hooper shot to fame with Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974. He followed that up with the TV movie Salem's Lot in 1979, based on the Stephen King novel, and Poltergeist in 1982.

Posted by Mary Chastain on August 20, 2017 6 Comments
Comedic legend Jerry Lewis has died at the age of 91. He shot to fame with his teammate Dean Martin and gained notoriety in The Nutty Professor. Most of the younger generations have come to known him through his annual Labor Day telethon to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 22, 2017 2 Comments
George Romero, the father of the zombie horror genre, passed away last Sunday at the age of 77. Romero burst onto the scene in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead, which cost only $100,000 to produce and broke a barrier when he casted an African-American male in the lead heroic role.

Posted by Mary Chastain on July 17, 2017 7 Comments
Celebrated and loved actor Martin Landau passed away on Sunday at the age of 89, only a few hours after we received the devastating news that George Romero died. Landau proved through the course of his career that he could perform any role handed to him. His talents didn't end there. He handed off his brilliance to up and coming actors like Jack Nicholson.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 18, 2017 11 Comments
Flounder has died. CNN reports:
Stephen Furst, the actor who played the hapless, beanie-wearing frat boy Flounder in the 1978 movie "Animal House," has died at age 63, his son, Nathan Furst, told CNN on Saturday. "It was from complications from diabetes," Nathan Furst said. "Over the last several years it was getting worse a little bit. Sort of the typical things that tend to happen when you have diabetes a long time."

Posted by Mary Chastain on June 10, 2017 9 Comments
Batman star Adam West passed away at the age of 89 after he battled leukemia. From Vanity Fair:
“Our dad always saw himself as The Bright Knight and aspired to make a positive impact on his fans’ lives. He was and always will be our hero,” his family said in a statement. West died peacefully in his home Friday night after a battle with leukemia, and is survived by his wife Marcelle, six children, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Posted by Mike LaChance on May 28, 2017 10 Comments
If you're a fan of classic rock, odds are you know and love the music of Gregg Allman and the Allman Brothers Band. Gregg Allman passed away this weekend of a combination of health issues at the age of 69. Deadline Hollywood reports:
Gregg Allman, Pillar of Namesake Southern Rock Band, Dies at 69 Gregg Allman, the singer and organist for the Allman Brothers Band and progenitor of the blues-inflected genre of Southern Rock, has died at age 69.

Posted by Andrew Branca on May 09, 2017 18 Comments
Yesterday morning, Bob Owens—a husband, a father, my friend, and a tireless defender of our Second Amendment rights—took his life. We are all diminished as a result. I don’t suppose we can ever really know what drives a person to make such a decision. Their pain must be unimaginable. Whatever the cause, Bob’s pain is past, and it is the rest of us who must continue. In particular, Bob leaves behind his parents, his wife, two daughters (17 and 9), and of much lesser concern the many hundreds of us who called him our friend. For myself, I choose to move forward by remembering all the tremendous good Bob brought to my life in particular and our broader gun culture in general. With respect to his family, I intend to participate in whatever efforts can be arranged to help them continue in the absence of their husband and father—more on that in a moment.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 07, 2017 11 Comments
Comedian Don Rickles, who was well known for going after his audiences as well as his fellow entertainers, has passed away. He was 90 years old. The Hollywood Reporter has the story:
Don Rickles, Legendary Comic With a Gift for the Insult, Dies at 90 Don Rickles, the rapid-fire insult machine who for six decades earned quite a living making fun of people of all creeds and colors and everyone from poor slobs to Frank Sinatra, has died. He was 90.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 01, 2017 8 Comments
Russian Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko has died at age 84. He was resident at the University of Tulsa, and died in a hospital in Oklahoma City. I think it's hard for Americans to understand the celebrated role that poets occupy in Russian history, including the dissident movement that began to develop in the 1950s and 1960s. I experienced some of that when studying Russian language and literature in the 1970s and early 1980s, and studying in Moscow in 1980. The vast sweep of Yevtushenko life work was somewhat overwhelmed by the power and stature of Yevtushenko’s 1961 poem about the Nazi massacre of over 33,000 Jews in just two days on September 29-30, 1941, at Babi Yar, a ravine near Kiev in the Ukraine. I provided extensive background and material about the Babi Yar massacre in my May 7, 2016, post, Israeli flag burned at Babi Yar on Holocaust Remembrance Day:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 18, 2017 8 Comments
Sad news. The great Chuck Berry has died at the age of 90. I remember as a teenager listening to his records over and over and over. I think it's fair to say he was my first rock idol, even though by the time I started listening to him in the 1970s I was listening to a lot of his music from the 1950s.
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