Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

There's a great joke in the Avengers where Stead gets a post card from Cathy from Fort Knox.

Louis Johnson the choreographer for the movies Cotton Goes to Harlem and The Wiz, who also got a Tony award, worked with Balanchine, and taught dance at Howard u in DC has passed due to coronavirus

http://outandaboutnycmag.com/3-31-20-oa-nyc-in-memorium-dancer-choreographer-louis-johnson-dies-at-90/

One of the football world's greatest artists has passed away. Italian graphical designer Piero Gratton has died 80 years old.

Gratton leaves behind a great legacy since he designed the former Roma wolf, the old Lazio crest, the rooster of Bari and the UEFA logo.#design #badges pic.twitter.com/kYntu6sETa

— World Football Club Crests (@WorldClubCrests) April 7, 2020

Hal Willner, coronavirus.

https://variety.com/2020/music/obituaries-people-news/hal-willner-dead-dies-music-producer-saturday-night-live-1234573202/

Fuck.

Damn

Made several of my favorites. Of his super sessions, Stay Awake and Weird Nightmare are most awesome.

Weird Nightmare is indeed all time great. RIP

Stay Awake, man. That thing is a legend. He was a legend.

shit, that's a loss.

That NBC Sunday Night Music show that Hal Willner produced was awesome- Sun Ra, Al Green, Sonic Youth, lots of unexpected collaborations. All on network tv, albeit late Sunday night but still. So sad he’s gone

So saddened to hear about Hal Willner. His production on Marianne Faithfull's Strange Weather was perfect. Really hoping for Marianne to make it through this fking outbreak.

Stay Awake is one of a maybe a dozen records that totally changed how I think about music. I didn’t ever respond much to Disney in context, but out of context he made me see the artistry. Made me a much less dismissive hipster.

The Kurt Weill one too, though I was already on the path there, it made Brecht accessible for me.

john prine

Oof

2020 shaping up to be a 2016-level shitshow.

Allen Garfield

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/allen-garfield-dead-actor-conversation-stunt-man-nashville-was-80-1289151

A weird one to single out, but he's great as the asshole label guy in One-Trick Pony.

I also love the story about how Altman cast him in Nashville because they ran into each other in a bar at the Cannes Festival; Altman told him he was perfect for the roll, down to his clothes, which he made him wear in the film.

is he the guy that gives Harry a hard time in The Conversation and puts the pen mic in his jacket at the lil spy party? Just rewatched that a couple days ago, Coppola's best

Yes.

So great in Nashville as well obviously, also rewatched that fairly recently

"I CAN'T STOP THAT BLOOD, MAN!!"

linda tripp, 70

Hillary took her sweet time with that one

(very promising) rapper Chynna, 25.

Mad artist Mort Drucker:

https://www.newsfromme.com/2020/04/09/mort-drucker-r-i-p/

i always picture celebrities in my mind in his style

my favourite Mad artist from my youthful Mad obsession

Richard Teitelbaum, Dead At 80

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/09/831173527/richard-teitelbaum-experimentalist-with-an-earth-spanning-ear-dead-at-80?fbclid=IwAR1wev5j7zGpjL56f2sgCIurzc9AZCY5AftxPLyFhvlPhO0IqEwhGgw52PI

He was an amazing artist

Phyllis Lyon, a gay rights pioneer in SF

RIP Richard T. Grim cavalcade of casualties so far this year.

those Drucker-drawn movie parodies were the best

Hausu director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

per the lincoln center film twitter at least:

R.I.P. Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (1938-2020) pic.twitter.com/nlmzsWjpEd

— Film at Lincoln Center (@FilmLinc) April 10, 2020

damn, seishun dendekedekedeke (aka The Rocking Horsemen) is one of my all-time favorite cult classics. Tadanobu Asano's first (or very early) big role as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifr-nfMd8g4

sad to hear this, House is very popular in my household and circle thanks to Criterion. Does he have other work accessible to a region 1 home viewer?

apparently "Sada," his 1998 biopic of Sada Abe, is also on Criterion. sounds pretty different though.

also short films on ubuweb: http://ubu.com/film/obayashi.html

Thankyou

experimental filmmaker and canyon cinema founder bruce baillie

Filmmaker, @canyoncinema founder, and @SFCinematheque cofounder Bruce Baillie has died.

“One of the most perfect films that I’ve ever seen runs a total of three minutes.” @ManohlaDargis: https://t.co/FXOmwrzEKh

+ Ross Lipman, “Dr. Bish Remedies” (9’40”) https://t.co/NUjTCGEj9n pic.twitter.com/WbGe1UEbdp

— The Daily (@CriterionDaily) April 10, 2020

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/10/832007472/bassist-andy-gonzalez-dies-at-69

Andy Gonzalez was a legend. Rockin this funky jam tonight:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ze4xTXI-xU

Travis Nelson, drummer

*Nelsen

Timothy Brown, ‘M*A*S*H’ Actor and NFL Player, Dies at 82

https://www.thewrap.com/timothy-brown-mash-actor-nfl-dead-dies-dementia-82/

His M*A*S*H character was nicknamed Spearchucker wtiaf

^^Fred Williamson played the character, a 1950s pro quarterback/surgeon, in the movie. They retconned the character from the show when they discovered surgical units weren't actually racially integrated during the Korean War.

Checking his imdb, I'd forgotten that Brown also had a bit role in the M*A*S*H movie, making him one of the handful of actors from it who also did the show. He would reunite with Altman to play the Charley Pride analog Tommy Brown in Nashville.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72V_uz9iL_8