Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

No fucking way

^^^ WTF!!!!!

John Shrapnel, whose voice you'll know from a hundred voiceovers even if you don't know his name.

author charles portis, 86

i somehow imagined true grit was written decades before i was born so this startled me until i looked it up

oh wow charles portis, i didn't even know he was still alive.

Me neither. RIP.

Kellye Nakahara Wallett

She played the RN Yamato on M*A*S*H and The Cook in the Clue movie.

Also Sam Panopoulos, a Greek-Canadian restaurateur who decided it would be a good idea to add pineapple & Canadian bacon atop a pizza.

a dish best served cold

Especially since Panopoulos died two and a half years ago.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40230407

Norwegian jazz drummer Jon Christensen — played with Keith Jarrett, Terje Rypdal, Jan Garbarek and many, many others. Basically ECM's house drummer in the 1970s.

Damn, I loved his playing on those early Garbarek LPs, not to mention Masqualero in the 80s and, more recently, Jakob Bro's ECM releases. RIP.

charles portis was amazing, you should read all of his novels if you haven't already (there are only five of them and they're all pretty short and go down easy)

Even Gringos?

Or should that just be read last

Or before Masters of Atlantis?

gringos is good! just not as good as his other novels.
i'd say just go chronologically.

About two years ago really enjoyed the audiobook of True Grit, read by Donna Tartt iirc.

Ja'net Dubois, from Good Times.

and singer of the Jeffersons theme

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/celebrity/janet-dubois-good-times-star-dies-at-74-report/ar-BB108mkT

Pop Smoke

https://www.tmz.com/2020/02/19/pop-smoke-dead-dies-20-murdered-home-invasion-robbery/

20 years old...

holy fuck!

4-time Tony winner Zoe Caldwell

http://www.playbill.com/article/zoe-caldwell-4-time-tony-winning-actor-dies-at-age-86

Astronomer and presenter Dr Heather Coupler

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51562165

I don't know why but I would never have thought she was 70.

*Couper*

Coffin Joe, the Brazilian cult horror star.

http://www.wearemoviegeeks.com/2020/02/wamg-tribute-jose-mojica-marins-coffin-joe-has-died/

Maybe too Berkeley local, but Glenn Yasuda of Berkeley Bowl died this week. It seems insane to say, but that grocery store really changed my life:

We also lost Alice Schenker of the Print Mint, a pioneering poster store and a fixture on Telegraph Ave. The Schenkers published the comic Yellow Dog starting in '68, and featured work by Robert Crumb among others:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Dog_(comics)

Borderline saviour of humanity Larry Tesler, creator of the cut, copy and paste commands.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/feb/20/creator-of-copy-and-paste-command-larry-tesler-dies-aged-74

Wow, legend

a true legend is gone

https://nypost.com/2020/02/20/sy-sperling-founder-of-hair-club-for-men-dead-at-78/

Frances Cuka, prolific character actress who achieved mainstream fame late in life as Nice Grandma in Friday Night Dinner.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/feb/20/frances-cuka-obituary

I never knew she was the original Jo in A Taste of Honey! RIP horrible grandma, you made me roffle.

Cleveland television personality and kiddie show host Marty "Superhost" Sullivan, 87.

https://www.cleveland19.com/2020/02/22/cleveland-tv-icon-superhost-dies/

In the “People you were surprised to discover weren’t already dead” hall of fame. Oh how I loved watching his Three Stooges shows back in the 80s.

SUPE’S ON SATURDAYS AT NOON WUAB CHANNEL 43

when i was a kid in pittsburgh for a while we got WUAB (Lorraine/Cleveland)

occasionally there were some indians games i didn't care about? but mostly i think i watched eight is enough repeats

anyway, rip clevo tv guy. i know and salute your kind

Every once in a while Sullivan would fill in as anchor for Channel 43 News and it was so jarring if you were a kid and only knew him as Superhost.

Flat earther ‘Mad’ Mike Hughes after crashing his home made rocket.

now truly a flat earth scientist, rip dude

Lloyd Pinchback played sax, flute, & cowbell with Chuck Brown’s Soul Searchers. First sat in with Chuck Brown on a gig that still happened in SE DC on the day MLK was killed in 68. He wrote Soul Searchers song “Ashley’s Roachclip “ that had a drum break sampled on many rap records . Here’s my obituary for him

https://thedcline.org/2020/02/22/the-cowbell-king-memorial-service-saturday-to-celebrate-the-life-of-lloyd-pinchback-who-played-with-chuck-brown/

nice piece. thanks, curmudge

Thanks. Real interesting guy. I went to the memorial service Saturday. His current DC gogo band Proper Utensils did some songs, and the Pastor’s son did an incredible version of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come. Plenty of speakers as well who all brought tears as well as smiles

Yeah, that was a great piece. I tweeted the link.

We regret to inform you that comics publisher Russ Cochran has passed away. He was best known for taking painstaking efforts to reprint the classic EC comics line in beautiful collected editions.

Goodbye Russ, thank you for your contributions to the world of comics. pic.twitter.com/tz9tCtz5p5

— San Diego Comic Fest (@sdcomicfest) February 24, 2020

Russ Cochran, EC Comics archivist and arguably inventor of the prestige format reprints market.

Katherine Johnson, who retired from NASA in 1986, has died at the age of 101. Over her decades of service, she played a role in every space program the agency launched https://t.co/62Sm0sh3k9

— National Geographic (@NatGeo) February 24, 2020

wow

Another 101-yr old, Baby Peggy.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/baby-peggy-dead-silent-film-star-was-101-831926

Linked from that article: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/rambling-reporter/child-star-baby-peggy-publishes-her-first-novel-at-99-1071326