Rolling Obituary Thread: 2021

Helen McCrory

pic.twitter.com/gSx8ib9PY9

— Damian Lewis (@lewis_damian) April 16, 2021

Fuck. RIP

Missed Rusty Young dying, what a shame, gonna play some Poco now in tribute.

Thats so sad about Helen McCrory, always thought they made a lovely pair too

Vartan Gregorian, saviour of the NYPL:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/nyregion/vartan-gregorian-dead.html

Very sad about Helen McCrory too. A very skilled actress with charisma off the scale. All of her colleagues are saying what a loyal and loving friend she was and you could just tell that was the case from her screen presence. I feel very sad for her family.

"Felix Silla, an actor and stuntman best known for playing Cousin Itt on “The Addams Family,” has passed away today at the age of 84."

Hair today, gone tomorrow ...

RIP, crossword puzzle stalwart.

First I'm hearing about the extra "t". No wonder I missed all those crossword gimmes!

Cousin in this thread.

unfortunate that vartan gregorian was unable to save the new york-penn league as well

Yeah, figured he probably had some feet of clay I was not paying attention to.

So long Lew Lewis (left) who has sadly died in hospital – 16 April 2021 – the Canvey Island legend who combined Chicago blues harmonica w/ onstage gymnastics and fronted Lew Lewis Reformer @StiffRecords Early Hot Road. Writer of ‘Lucky Seven’ for Dr Feelgood. Photo S Hasler 2016. pic.twitter.com/1hlpM8PdeK

— Will Birch (@Will_Birch) April 17, 2021

Free at last. Cool detail from wiki:

Lewis was brought up in the same Canvey Island street as Lee Brilleaux who taught Lewis to play harmonica.

Rapper Black Rob, of "Whoa!" fame.

https://pitchfork.com/news/black-rob-dead-at-52/

Mike Mitchell, who played THAT solo in the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie"

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/mike-mitchell-guitarist-kingsmen-louie-130407646.html

RIP

Walter Mondale?

R.I.P. Read: Former Vice President Walter Mondale's last message to staff https://t.co/gDSjbjCArQ

— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) April 20, 2021

Idriss Déby, president of Chad since 1990. Died 'on the battlefield' during a rebel insurgency, which all sounds very dramatic.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/20/chad-president-idriss-deby-dies-military-says

RIP Paul Oscher best known for his stint as harmonica player for the great Muddy Waters from the late '60s to the early '70s. Also played guitar. He was the first white musician to play in Muddy's band and even lived in Muddy's house on Chicago's South Side. Saw April 18 death reported on Facebook and Wiki. Oscher had been ill for awhile

Jim Steinman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-RVJyNpfDk

Get outta here

Terrible news

He was 73 tbf

Rest in bombast you maniac

Aw, man. I just finally watched Streets of Fire, which was basically a film adaptation of his overwrought musical style.

Yeah, I can see that. The most baffling thing about that movie has always been that it was directed by Walter Hill.

Jim Steinman, 73

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/jim-steinman-meat-loaf-songwriter-dead-obituary-1158472/

Already noted in the ILM Jim Steinman thread.

and this one

Saw that post but didn't read the name, I guess (stupid, stupid hits self in head).

Juggalo Steinman

Meatloaf write-man

Monte Hellman

https://variety.com/2021/film/obituaries-people-news/monte-hellman-dead-dies-director-two-lane-blacktop-1234956241/

Huh. Didn't know he was still with us. RIP.

I interviewed him once (4 questions via email) when his last movie, Road To Nowhere, came out. I don't love all his work by any means, but any director with Two-Lane Blacktop and Cockfighter on their resume has nothing to apologize for, ever.

My friend (a director) stayed at his AirBnB in LA a few years back which turned out to be 2 weeks staying with Monte. He was the loveliest guy and took the time to watch my friend's first film with him, and sent me a signed Criterion Two Lane Blacktop which I treasure. Apparently he taught film at the Cali Institute of the Arts.

One of the extras on that Criterion is a film of Hellman taking his students on a field trip visiting TLB locations.

Thing I learned today: Hellman was the second-unit director on the original RoboCop, handling alot of the action sequences.

Apparently he taught film at the Cali Institute of the Arts.

That's how the interview came about; a friend of mine is also a film professor at CalArts, and gave me Hellman's email address.

Les McKeown.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity/bay-city-roller-les-mckeown-23963643

:(

Bay City Rollers singer Les McKeown, 65

Oops, xpost

That's OK, at least you told people who he was!

Weirdly sparse wikipedia entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_McKeown

That's been severely edited, his life was pretty colourful.

one bit of gossip I read was that he came out to his wife during alcohol rehab and confessed he'd been sleeping with lots of men