Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

Winston Groom, 77.

I didn't know there was a Forrest Gump sequel, Gump and Co.:

Forrest also meets an attractive blonde woman named Gretchen, who works in a beer hall. Originally from East Germany, Gretchen was spirited to the West, but her family still remains in the Soviet zone. Forrest and Gretchen start dating, but when Forrest suggests buying Little Forrest an oompah horn, Gretchen thinks he cannot afford such a gift on a private's salary and suggests better rapport could be built through writing letters explaining his situation in Germany. Despite Gretchen's concerns, Forrest shells out $800 for the horn (but considers it a better deal as he did not get ripped off for shipping as he did in Alaska).

That plot summary is a treat:

When Forrest's background in pro football is discovered, he gets recruited for the Sour Krauts, the unit's football team, to play against an intelligence unit, the Wiesbaden Wizards.

Alternate world where Forrest Gump on film was just another Ace Ventura-like role for Carrey.

Scanning the wiki page, that is....a *lot* of plot for 242 pages. I'm almost impressed.

RBG, 87

The great Michael Lonsdale, almost certainly the only person to appear in a James Bond film and a Jacques Rivette film:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54234139

Another big movie one, Ron Cobb, key designer on a major slew of 70s/80s films:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ron-cobb-dead-designer-alien-ship-back-future-delorean-was-83-1149219

Not to mention a to-the-point political cartoonist 50 years back with work that hasn't aged at all -- sadly.

Sorry to learn from @AnnoDracula about the death of the great Ron Cobb, whose editorial cartoons from the '60s are unfortunately more relevant now than ever. I wish they weren't, but they are. pic.twitter.com/CDgpVtxEk5

— Scott Edelman (@scottedelman) September 21, 2020

The great Michael Lonsdale, almost certainly the only person to appear in a James Bond film and a Jacques Rivette film:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54234139🕸

Oh no! I’ve spent the last three years reading old issues of Los Angeles Free Press, Chicago Seed and other counterculture papers from 1966-1970 and Cobb’s work was always there, had one or two on stuck to my wall. I actually had no idea about his work outside of the papers, since that was the only context I knew his name from!

Also Ron Cobb

https://dangerousminds.net/content/uploads/images/_framed/abab-original-1500-734.jpg

What an absolutely gorgeous sleeve

So RBG died 50 years to the day after Jimi Hendrix?

and she served on the Supreme Court for 27 years. spooky.

And Ruth Negga played Hendrix's girlfriend in that biopic...

Spookier still:
Hendrix used Marshall amplifiers, while Ginsburg was called the "Thurgood Marshall of gender equality law"....

This is probably apocryphal but I remember reading that when RBG wrote her Ledbetter vs Goodyear dissent she had like a whole sheet of acid tucked into her headband

Roy Head of "Treat Her Right" fame.

https://preview.houstonchronicle.com/music/roy-head-singer-who-took-houston-sound-up-the-15584781

Jan Reid, author of The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock, amongst others

https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/remembering-jan-reid-a-defining-magazine-journalist-and-voice-in-texas-literature/

RIP ROY HEAD! "Treat Her Right" was used perfectly in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Best fuckin opening to a movie in a while

Jackie Stallone

Cinematographer Michael Chapman:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/michael-chapman-cinematographer-on-taxi-driver-and-raging-bull-dies-at-84

UK musician Dave Kusworth died a few days ago. He’s best known for recording with Nikki Sudden sometimes billed as the Jacobites. They had a tuneful Rolling Stones Glimmer Twins aspect to their sound mixed with punk , but often handled by just the 2 of them

Gale Sayers

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29951448/chicago-bears-hall-fame-running-back-gale-sayers-dies-age-77

Brian's Song was Film Art when I saw it at 10.

Juliette Greco.

Juliette Greco.

Bonjour tristesse!

loved her in the Miles Davis documentary last year

RIP, existentialists muse with that voice

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/23/juliette-greco-face-of-chic-postwar-paris-dies-aged-93

Harold Evans, 92.

Read 'My Paper Chase' when studying journalism. Quite a nostalgic (obv) and overly romantic book iirc, but that's what drew me to it at the time. He was one of the good guys and fought back against Murdoch (and Thatcher). RIP

My mistake, it was 'Good Times Bad Times' I read during uni, not 'My Paper Chase'. I'm not that young. The latter v much recommended though.

photorealist painter Robert Bechtle, 88yo

one of Cobb's colleagues posted this overview/taste of his freewheeling thang, started w example of cool cover art for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction:
http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2020/09/22/ron-cobb-1937-2020/

also some here, among a nova express of heads:
http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2018/04/27/the-artists-of-future-life/

Also this guy, who was amazing, for many many years, so glad he came back to the community, still contributing, though just being there, as a living reminder of past achievement and survival, would have been enough:
Robert Graetz, white minister who supported Montgomery bus boycott and became KKK target, dies at 92
https://www.al.com/news/montgomery/2020/09/robert-graetz-white-minister-who-supported-montgomery-bus-boycott-and-became-kkk-target-dies-at-92.html See also NYTimes etc. coverage

original Small Faces keyboardist Jimmy Winston

Mark Stone, Van Halen's original bass player
https://ultimateclassicrock.com/mark-stone-van-halen-dies/

No-one mentioned Lee Kerslake, Uriah Heep and Ozzy Osbourne drummer, 73.

...and one of the guys whose work was stripped from the 2001 Rhoads-era Ozzy remasters. (since restored on later versions)

Philadephia DJ/musician/overall scene guy Sean O’Neal — far too young, and a personal favorite of mine thanks to his work in the wonderful Flowchart.

https://newsflash.bigshotmag.com/news/63621/

Damn. He was a good guy!

Yeah I've heard nothing but love for him. What a damn shame.

He recommended me the excellent Gez Varley 2xLP "Bayou Paradis" right toward the end of 611's time as a record shop. Really fantastic record.

Helen Reddy

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/trailblazing-australian-singer-helen-reddy-dead-at-78-20200930-p560i0.html

ohhhh helen ;_;

She was before my time, and "I Am Woman!" was basically a sitcom punchline by the time I heard of it, but I was amused to learn, very recently, that she sang backup vocals on Gene Simmons' s/t solo album (from that time all four KISS members released solo records on the same day).

RIP.

She used to host The Midnight Special (sometimes alongside Wolfman Jack!).

her voice is my entire childhood

Helen Reddy and Mac Davis dying the same day. If the used record stacks at Goodwill are the barometer, protect Judy Collins.