Rolling Obituary Thread: 2015

Where did you see that?

Criterion posted it on FB--he was 88.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/07/movies/albert-maysles-pioneering-documentarian-dies-at-88.html?_r=0

:(

Trumpeter Lew Soloff (Gil Evans, Blood, Sweat & Tears, Tito Puente, many others).

That is terrible news. He always played so great, no matter how old he was, on that notoriously challenging instrument.

Japanese cartoonist Yoshihiro Tatsumi

http://www.paulgravett.com/articles/article/yoshihirotatsumi

dude was a master. RIP.

A Drifting Life was great and his shorts collections are good too. Black Blizzard is a silly early gekiga -- I'm not sure why they translated it.

it was one of his first major pieces and a foundational building block of the movement. parallels to Bark's Pirate Gold or Kirby/Lee FF#1 imo; the final product may not hold up beautifully but it's super significant. plus i don't think it had ever been published in english until now!

Damn, RIP Tatsumi. A friend got me The Push Man and other stories and I loved it. Incredible stuff.

Sam Simon:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sam-simon-simpsons-producer-philanthropist-606632

aw shit

was kind of hoping he might wilko johnson his cancer somehow

RIP, did good things while he was here

Camille Muffat, Florence Arthaud and eight others killed when two helicopters being used in a French reality tv show crashed in Argentina. Horrific.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/10/ten-dead-in-apparent-helicopter-crash-in-argentina

it annoys me how 10 people died but only the three french athletes seem to matter. their pictures are on all the news sites and in the radio reports, the other 7 don't even get name-checked.

'Pipeline' guitarist Brian Carman of the Chantays dies at 69
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/spickard-652922-chantays-pipeline.html

RIP. Here is another obit with some interesting info http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-brian-carman-20150306-story.html

Windell Middlebrooks, best known as "The Miller High Life Guy" from Radio & TV, but was also a regualer face on many sitcoms and dramas.

http://www.tmz.com/2015/03/10/miller-high-life-guy-dead-windell-middlebrooks-commercial-dies/

RIP, nice guy.

Michael Graves

Daevid Allen of Gong not long ago. Reported by one of his sons on their facebook page.

Terry Pratchett, age 66. Not suicide.

Tod Dockstader, electronic musician (died 27 feb 2015)

first heard his work, Quatermass, as background to some short computer graphics film by John Stehura that they screened at the tate modern a few years ago. it was too loud and very dark.

http://pitchfork.com/news/58660-musique-concrete-composer-tod-dockstader-has-died/

aw, rip terry pratchett; you were important to everyone i knew's teenage childhood reading habits

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/toto-bassist-mike-porcaro-dead-at-59-20150315

Look out Steve Porcaro.

Thom Wilson, legendary SoCal punk producer. No stories yet but Epitaph Records just sent out a press release saying he passed on February 8 -- someone should do a poll thread based on his early 80s work alone, look at that run via this link:

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

Irwin Hasen, golden age superhero man (co-creator of DC's Wildcat) and 30+ year man on the classic strip Dondi. Good life.
http://www.tcj.com/irwin-hasen-dondi-wildcat-artist-dead-at-96/
http://bmj2k.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/dondi-orig.jpg

More:
http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2015/03/irwin-hasen-1918-2015.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/16/arts/irwin-hasen-comic-book-artist-and-dondi-illustrator-dies-at-96.html

Free bassist Andy Fraser, 62

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/andy-fraser-dies/

^^RIP, Fraser & Kirke=great rhythm section

Sam Charters, author of some of the best books on the blues I ever read as well as record producer for Lightnin' Hopkins, Country Joe, John Fahey etc:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/19/arts/music/samuel-charters-foundational-scholar-of-the-blues-dies-at-85.html?smid

Shaw Taylor, the first man on British television promoting public crime-solving.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-31954540

Appeared on a Throbbing Gristle live album too.

Michael Brown, who wrote "Walk Away Renee": http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/21/arts/music/michael-brown-keyboardist-for-the-left-banke-dies-at-65.html?_r=0

Dr. George Fischbeck, one of the most entertaining people on L.A. area TV back in the day.

http://abc7.com/news/dr-george-fischbeck-longtime-kabc-weatherman-dies/572407/

Awww, RIP Dr. George.

RIP Lil' Chris - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-suffolk-32038895

I have sung Ch-Ch-Ch-Checking It Out to amuse girls about a zillion times, and most of them never even knew ya.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttkkj9yBh3Y

http://louisvillemusic.org/blog/2015/03/20/steve-chili-rigot-dies/

Louisville punkrocker from the group the Endtables

Gregory Walcott, star of Plan 9 and movies that cost even more.

"Ed Wood has etched my name forever in the annals of film history," he said a 1998 Filmfax magazine interview with writer Dwayne Epstein. "The thing that really bugs me is I will go to my grave not remembered for those meaty roles I did for the likes of John Ford, Raoul Walsh, Martin Ritt or Steven Spielberg but as the leading man in a film that many movie historians regard as the worst of all time. It's enough to drive a Puritan to drink!"

http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-gregory-walcott-20150324-story.html

eternally muzzled by Army brass

Miroslav Ondříček, cinematographer for Milos Forman and Lindsay Anderson among others

http://deadline.com/2015/03/miroslav-ondricek-dies-cinematographer-behind-amadeus-was-80-1201400839/

Gene Saks, director of stage & screen, including many of the most famous Neil Simon works in either medium, and also an ex-husband of Bea Arthur

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/30/theater/gene-saks-actor-and-director-of-stage-and-film-dies-at-93.html?smid=tw-nytobits&seid=auto&_r=1

url says it all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/01/us/gary-dahl-inventor-of-the-pet-rock-dies-at-78.html

Who will feed his rocks now?

Robert Z'Dar, star of Maniac Cop and many, many other B- and Z-movies. MST3K had a great time with him in Soultaker.

http://time.com/3766780/robert-zdar-dies-maniac-cop/

Cynthia Lennon :(

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6517153/cynthia-lennon-dead

:(