Rolling Obituary Thread: 2015

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo and programmer of Earthbound, Kirby, Balloon Fight etc etc

RIP Iwata, you were more important to me than you should've been

RIP

Scottish photographer Joseph McKenzie

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-33537969

Hearing that Aubrey Morris has died, can't find any news agency verification yet.

Yep, heard that from someone who works at the BFI.

The Guardian has it: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/16/aubrey-morris

was all like 'he looks familiar' but couldn't place him. then wikipedia delivers:

the dimwitted Golgafrinchan captain who was eternally taking a bath

Entertaining memoir of Aubrey Morris here - my favourite bit:

The following day I called and got his answering machine. We played phone tag for a day or so until I finally caught him at home. This first conversation I had with him was slightly uncomfortable because of what he managed to say within the first few seconds of chatting…. “Oh before we go on are you planning to bugger me?..I mean, it’s been so long since I’ve had a really good shag.”

http://69.195.124.61/~filmsinr/2009/05/05/camp-david-may-2009-aubrey-morris/

Alex Rocco aka Moe Greene aka Charlie Polniaczek has died aged 79 according to his daughter's Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10206450487294272&set=a.1112250699766.17825.1631869925&type=1&permPage=1

rip Moe

According to her, Alex's favorite tv show role was the one he had on The George Carlin Show. I buy it, but I'd just as easily have bought it if it was his least favorite. Spending that much time with Carlin seems like it could go either way.

His one scene in The Godfather (technically he has two counting his death) is endlessly quotable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DZNDEqcSi0

He was also Roger Meyers, chairman of Itchy and Scratchy

RIP Ms. Melodie
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/rap-pioneer-ramona-parker-aka-ms-melodie-member-boogie-productions-ex-wife-krs-one-dead-43-article-1.1117356

too young :(

Why did I think that Alex Rocco had died a week or two ago? Was he in the news for some other reason?

Ms Melodie died 3 years ago..

My bad, should've fact checked that

That's some obit, though.

“RIP Ms. Melodie. A dope MC,” tweeted hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons, using a slang term that means top-notch.

George Coe, voice of Woodhouse on "Archer" season 1-4. Co-directed the Bergman parody "The Dove."

And original SNL cast member (sorta)!

Elio Fiorucci.

http://www.ansa.it/english/news/lifestyle/fashion_luxury/2015/07/20/fashion-designer-elio-fiorucci-is-dead_cc03303f-e899-44b2-a446-79066d22681f.html

xp yeah, no excuse just not thinking

Grooveshark co-founder Josh Greenberg, 28
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20150720/ARTICLES/150729990

Dieter Moebius

https://www.facebook.com/michaelrother.music/posts/10153008205291186

Aw.

Wayne Carson, songwriter. Most famous for "Always on My Mind" and "The Letter."

Jesus, not a good night. :((((

Now I'm going to have to interrupt my playing of Moebius to play the Box Tops' "You Keep Tightening Up On Me" :(

Also wrote "Soul Deep."

Take care of yourselves, Wayne Jackson and Lincoln Wayne "Chips" Woman.

much respect to Wayne Carson for writing the abovementioned songs as well as several of my favorite Gary Stewart songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F-k0lLsLmw

Perhaps the only singer with phrasing as perverse is Bob Dylan, himself a Stewart fan. While touring with Tom Petty in Florida, Dylan went out of his way to meet him, confessing that he'd played Stewart's ode to marital malaise 'Ten Years of This' over and over, the record casting a spell over him.

(Xp!)Whoa, he also wrote some stone cold classics for Gary Stewart: "Drinkin' Thing," "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)" as well as "I See The Want To In Your Eyes."

http://countrymusichalloffame.org/newsandupdates/posts/poets-and-prophets-salute-to-legendary-country-songwriter-wayne-carson

He also wrote this Waylon Jennings beatdown classic...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0M7JaPymtg

freaky! (xpost)

np Gary Stewart's Out of Hand album in Wayne's honor (or more to the point, it was already a Gary Stewart kind of night, and reading about Wayne gives me a bittersweet excuse to put his music on). it looks like Wayne also wrote the underrated "Oh, Sweet Temptation".

Theodore Bikel

http://www.theatermania.com/los-angeles-theater/news/fiddler-on-the-roof-star-theodore-bikel-dies-at-91_73606.html?cid=homepage_news

E.L. Doctorow

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/22/books/el-doctorow-author-of-historical-fiction-dies-at-84.html

i thought for sure both those last two were gone already

English jazz pianist John Taylor:

http://ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/music/jazzblog/rip-john-taylor

Ingrid Sischy, editor in chief of Interview in the 90s/2000s

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2015/07/graydon-carter-remembers-ingrid-sischy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/24/i-wanted-to-be-jillian-when-i-grew-up-friends-family-remember-la-victim-jillian-johnson/

Flora MacDonald:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/flora-macdonald-longtime-politician-dead-at-89-1.3168239

She ran for the PC leadership in 1976, the first political convention I ever paid attention to--wrote a paper on it for a high school history class. She was fifth on the first ballot with 9.1%; Joe Clark ended up winning, then beat Trudeau in the next election.

Ann Rule
http://www.inquisitr.com/2288726/true-crime-author-ann-rule-dies-writer-spent-a-lifetime-in-the-minds-of-serial-killers/

In other "thought they'd died years ago" news: Sir Peter O'Sullevan. 97!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/horse-racing/33709124

As noted on the Apprentice thread, Stuart Baggs:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-33719515

http://bangordailynews.com/2015/07/29/obituaries/coleen-sheran-singer

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/obituary/6649400/lynn-anderson-country-star-rose-garden-dead

Kind of definitively 1971 for me. This was great too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAw-YYKkqWE

roddy piper

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