The rolling RIP/obituary thread

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.

Street Gang is great, but oh man, so many sad things in it.

I hadn't heard about Olivia! RIP

Also total WTF things in it. Like Jim Henson dating Daryll Hannah?!? Our tabloid culture today would've never let anything so juicy escape their notice.

according to kristin hersh's twitter, vic chesnutt attempted suicide. i feel bad putting that on this thread, but not sure what would be more appropriate. everyone think good thoughts for vic, ok?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4770549

:(

rip. i was so confused the first time i heard there was a show called "george michael's sports machine."

George Michael was a staple of my childhood growing up in DC. Excellent delivery and top-notch production. The Sports Machine was way ahead of its time; basically Sports Machine was the template for Sports Center.

Also, GM was instrumental in promoting DC sports punditry. Mike Wilbon, Tony Kornheiser, David Aldridge, and probably several others owe their broadcasting careers to George Michael.

I saw Michael at a few recent Society of American Baseball Research conventions -- he had an avocation of sleuthing out the details of unidentified game photos from the pre-WW2 era; also a good live interviewer.

Also, Lester Rodney, sports editor of The Daily Worker who agitated for the integration of baseball in the '40s:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/23/MNRO1B95TG.DTL

http://torturedfanbase.com/george_michael_sports_machine.JPG

rip

I just posted it on ILM, but it merits a mention here: RIP Vic Chesnutt, dead at 45.

RIP Knut Haugland - the last of the six crewmen of the Kon-Tiki

Badass guy too. Before hooking up with Thor Heyerdahl, Haugland was active in the Norwegian resistance and took part in the famous raid on the Nazi heavy-water plant. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knut_Haugland

RIP Tim Hart, founding member of Steeleye Span. Many people think of them as MOR folkie dullards due to their mid-70s hit "All Around My Hat", but the first 3 SS albums are up there with Fairport Convention, Incredible String Band etc as innovavtive folk-rock classics, imo anyway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Hart

Oh damn. I've been listening to early Steeleye Span albums over Christmas, they were the perfect accompaniment to snow and mulled wine and curtains drawn tight against the cold black nights etc. And "All Around my Hat" is from my childhood - I think one of my elder brothers, or my Dad had the 7" single - so I have a big soft spot for it.
RIP

John Cushnie, my favourite Gardeners' Question Time panellist.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8437119.stm

Maybe there should be new thread for new year?

John Cushnie, my favourite Gardeners' Question Time panellist

Ditto, he was a very funny guy.

I thought I was the only square round here :)

Always listen to GQT on iPlayer if I'm feeling fretful about the hydrangeas.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20334459,00.html?xid=rss-topheadlines&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+people%2Fheadlines+%28PEOPLE.com%3A+Top+Headlines%29

Singer Sandro, the 'Argentine Elvis,' Dies at 64

Maybe there should be new thread for new year?

Good idea... Here it is: The rolling RIP/obituary thread - 2010 edition

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/sports/schmuck/ERNIEAAP.jpg

RIP Ernie Harwell, legendary Detroit Tigers radio announcer 1918-2010

Growing up in SE Michigan, WJR AM Detroit was on in my house & my dad's car ALL the time. My strongest memories of this are Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story" & this dude, who was the Tigers announcer for many, many years (55 seasons I read). My dad absolutely loved himm, to the extent that when he watched games at home, he would dial the volume down on the television & prop up an ancient single-speaker radio tuned to WJR. My dad even took me to an autograph signing at the downtown Jacobson's department store once. I was really young, but I remember EH seeming very genuinely gracious & friendly. He signed the foul ball I caught in Tiger Stadium '85!

Here is a quality feature from today's Detroit News - a list of misc. personal remembrances basically

he worked for other teams too, but Detroit for 40+ years.

abbey lincoln
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTGUkQQkttg