The rolling RIP/obituary thread

RIP Gene Barry:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iKN02thd-DS-x6zBfY2Lhz616SbAD9CGSQ5G0

RIP Dr. Malcolm Perry, Dallas doctor who worked on both JFK and Lee Harvey Oswald

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/120909dnmetperryob.3fc0b99.html

RIP Qian Xuesen, born in China, educated in the US, pioneer of American rocket science, deported in the 1950's for alleged communist activity, returned to China and helped found the Chinese space and rocket science programs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/asia/04qian.html

Harold Bell, a Creator of Woodsy Owl, Is Dead at 90
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/us/13bell.html

Harold Bell, who along with two forest rangers and another colleague created Woodsy Owl, the plump anthropomorphic bird in a red-feathered cap who for nearly four decades has exhorted youngsters to “Give a hoot, don’t pollute,” died Dec. 4 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 90.

robert samuelson, whose Intro the Economics textbook was required reading for many undergrads (me included), is dead at 94.

TCM's "in memorial" reel for 2009

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yzAzp7yMHU

RIP Oral Roberts, the amusingly named evangelist

God finally called him home.

About damned time.

The recession hit him too.

RIP Roy E. Disney

Aw. He always seemed like a mensch with the company's reputation at heart.

I think he certainly played up that image a bit. Whether or not it was always real...

I dunno. He was pretty firmly opposed to a lot of the bullshit that Eisner pulled, at the very least. Whether that was more a power play than a genuine desire to improve the company, I don't know.

RIP Jennifer Jones

Sol Price, Who Founded Price Club, Is Dead at 93

until I rewatched Portrait of Jennie last month, I'd forgotten JJ was still around.

rip dan o'bannon (screenwriter of 'alien' and many others

Damn.

Aw. Classic for Alien, Return of the Living Dead, and the "B-17" segment (pretty much the only redeemable segment) from Heavy Metal alone.

Also wrote the script for Dark Star, no?

Was co-writer, effects supervisor, production designer, editor, AND also played Sgt. Pinback.

He and Carpenter graduated from USC film school the same year.

Sorry, meant to say "was classic if only for ... alone."

"SEND...MORE...PARAMEDICS..."

RIP Brittany Murphy (apparently).

RIP Arnold Stang, voice of Top Cat

Nooo...

"Ivy Will Cling"

In Mexico, Top Cat is known as Don Gato y su pandilla.

Long WFMU blog article about him here: http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/06/you_wanna_make_.html

RIP, Arnold.

(Please ignore extra italics)

Grr, I meant to say Don Gato y su pandilla is much more popular than Top Cat ever was.

RIP Rainman, counting toothpicks in the sky

Kim Peek, the autistic savant who inspired the Oscar-winning film Rain Man, has died, aged 58.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-me-alaina-reed-hall22-2009dec22,0,5733815.story

Olivia from Sesame Street : (

oh, Arnold! great in The Man with the Golden Arm, and as one of Jonathan Winters' gas-station tormentors in It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.

aww, RIP Stang

So sad about Olivia!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ab-Ne52cwKo&feature=player_embedded

That is a great version of that song.

Damn it, people! Quit dying! Olivia dying is a serious blow. These people were like surrogate parents during a formative period of your life, y'know? Just saw her in an episode of Friends and wondered what had happened to her. ;_;

Speaking of dead Sesame Street folks, for those of you who remember David and wondered what ever happened to him, I'd recommend (or maybe totally not recommend, depending) reading Street Gang. I knew he was dead but had never heard any specifics of why he left the show or what had happened to him afterwards. He apparently was on a psychological downward spiral for a long time and eventually just went full-blown psychotic before ultimately dying. So, so sad.

I remember hearing about David having problems when I was a kid and for some reason the mental image I formed as a 5 year old involved him running around the set of Seasame Street, naked, acting crazy, and waving a frying pan around.

God, I can still remember the day when Mr. Hooper died. A dark time for three-year-old kate78.

Oh, Mr. Hooper! They should've populated that show solely with Muppets so kids never had to endure the trauma of human cast members dying. Although the last couple of times I've seen Big Bird on TV, it was pretty clear that Carroll Spinney wasn't in a good way. Which is just a whole other level of horrifying and sad.

And from what I've read, joygoat, it sounds like your vision of David sadly isn't that far off from reality.

Just requested Street Gang, I need to get around to reading that.

I know! I just looked it up. Substitute an iron rod for a frying pan, Nashville for Sesame Street, and put a t-shirt on him and it's not too far off. I must have heard a news story or my parents talking about it and that's how I pictured it.

yeah but the death of Mr. Hooper episode, and Big Bird in denial, is one of the most beautiful things ever aired on televison

I read Street Gang a few months ago, it's awesome.

this fucking year

Ron Asheton, LUX INTERIOR, John Hughes, Rashied Ali, Les Paul, so many great people gone

The great film critic Robin Wood.

http://www.theauteurs.com/notebook/posts/1345

Didn't know abt Robin Wood before, thank you for letting me know, Dr Morb - HOLLYWOOD FROM VIET NAM TO REAGAN is prob my all-time fave collection of film crit, a big influence on the way I still try to think and write abt horror movies, especially (even if he was so very wrong abt Cronenberg) - RIP

Robin Wood, RIP.

Isn't there a scene in Day For Night in which Truffaut is reading the Robin Wood Hitchcock book?

I guess he couldn't show himself reading his own book.