Rolling Obituary Thread: 2019

RIP.

Back to John Simon for a minute:

"There was a real John Simon, who had a real and lifelong passion for the theatre, but who had trapped himself into this one essentially hostile way of expressing it." Michael Feingold on his late critical colleague https://t.co/FpGRgjm9SM

— American Theatre (@AmericanTheatre) November 26, 2019

historian/biographer robert k. massie

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/books/robert-k-massie-dead.html

greedy smith

oh no :(

hey there

Legendary Star Trek writer/producer (among SO many other things) D.C. Fontana.

https://www.startrek.com/news/dc-fontana-1939-2019

aw man, there was a time when Live it Up seemed to be on saturday morning kids TV every single week.

RIP, DCF.

Bob Willis

Oh no! R.I.P. R.G.D. Willis!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpKKqek8v3U

In 1965, Willis added his third name "Dylan" by deed poll in honour of American musician Bob Dylan, of whom he was a fan.

Also borrowed his hairstyle.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Willis001.JPG

RIP Bob, he was an entertainingly miserable presence on Sky latterly and of course a great bowler

RIP bob!

awful miserable cunt on commentary. moaning all the time. rip.

He'll be up there in heaven with Hercules ;_;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-50686555

... well, he would be if bears went to heaven.

pssst heaven doesn't exist

RIP, Ron Saunders.

As a Villa fan, I'm biased here perhaps, but Saunders never got the credit he deserved for leading an unfancied and unfashionable club to the English league title in 1980-81. Only 14 players were used in that season's league campaign.

It is the sad duty of Aston Villa Football Club to announce that our former manager, Ron Saunders, has passed away at the age of 87.

— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) December 7, 2019

actor Robert Walker Jr.

RIP. Were his last words “I want stay...stay...stay”?

^ from the 1966 Star Trek episode "Charlie X" icymi

One somewhat obscure Robert Walker Jr. film I would recommend is Road to Salina (1970), a weird kind of psych-noir mystery shot in Spain w/ Mimsy Farmer and Rita Hayworth in one of her last roles.

to stay

B-b-but would you recommend The War Wagon? I wouldn’t. Recently was reminded of his dancing sequence in Easy Rider.

“”Charlie X” written by D.C. Fontana. Who will be next, according to the Rule of Three?

ron leibman, aka mr jessica walter

RIP, Kaz, unless that was Ron Silver.

does not appear to have been involved in star trek, but did twice guest star on murder, she wrote, which also sometimes featured commander matt decker

love that guy. there is some bit of trivia about him playing chess and having a game or an article published.

Ron Silver was in Heat Vision and Jack so this is kind of a near miss.

Thank you for bringing up "Heat Vision and Jack," because the last time I thought of that was literally in the pre-youtube era. Youtube here I come! (RIP Ron Silver, the ... American Alan Rickman?).

Looks like Ron Leibman outlived Ron Silver by ten years. Who’s mixed up now?

Me, because I saw "Rachel's dad on Friends dies" and thought oh fuck Elliott Gould (also Dr Morbius will probably go on a killing spree if/when Gould's death is reported in the context of his role on Friends)

Elliott Gould was on Friends??

Played Ross and Monica's Dad.

They got famous actors for all the Friends parents.

Rachel: Liebman and Marlo Thomas
Chandler: Kathleen Turner and Morgan Fairchild
Phoebe: Bob Balaban and Teri Garr
Joey: I forget.

pacino/pesci

whoa

I saw Ron Leibman's Tony-winning performance as Roy Cohn in Angels in America in '93. (Or rather, the first half of it; by the time I saw the second play months later, F Murray Abraham had replaced him.)

elliott gould was a total badass in the 70s

appearing as a friends dad was far less so

Juice Wrld

https://www.tmz.com/2019/12/08/juice-wrld-dead-dies-seizure-chicago-midway-airport-hospital/

Huh. Soundcloud rapper has statistically got to be one of the most dangerous professions aside from firefighters.

appearing as a friends dad was far less so

naw he was one of the best things in the show (Christina Pickles was great too)

Am sure Robert Walker Jr was a nice dude but Charlie X, the only Star Trek episode I remember watching as a little kid, scared the shit out of me, esp his brattish screaming

the mortality rate of these extremely young rappers is absolutely horrifying

lucid dreams was one of the best examples of the soundcloud style, i think, whatever you think of it. unapologetically direct and confessional. also, it shows the kind of range of reference points young people are working from -- the track rips off both sting and yellowcard.

Carroll Spinney, Big Bird/Oscar the Grouch, 85.

SAD

Oh no, RIP

i shed a tear

Rene Auberjonois

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ren-auberjonois-dead-star-trek-benson-actor-dies-at-79-1260677

Saw him on stage as the imaginary invalid once