Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

Selling England by the Pancreas

Tom Nairn :(

RIP

just saw that. RIP.

:( dropping this here as i was just rereading it without realising why someone had just retweeted it:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/scottish-independence-tom-nairn-gordon-brown/

Ort, aka William Orten Carlton, writer, record collector, scene elder, and relentless raconteur, best known outside his home town for his appearance in Athens, GA: Inside/Out

Korean actress Yoon Jeong-hee, star of Lee Chang-dong’s Poetry (among literally hundreds of other films)

https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.amp.asp?newsIdx=343991

Original Yardbirds guitarist Anthony "Top" Topham, 75

https://www.noise11.com/news/anthony-top-topham-the-original-yardbirds-guitarist-dead-at-age-75-20230124

Balkrishna (B.V.) Doshi, 95. Extraordinary architect --- a major figure in the post-WWII modernist conversation worldwide, probably the single most important architect of post-Independence India (due to his work, writing, and teaching), and according to everything I've ever heard, a genuinely nice and thoughtful person. He was arguably also the last of his generation's architectural titans; there are a few other big names around age 90, but they feel like a different micro-generation in terms of the state of the field when they rose to prominence, and their degree of connection to the prewar scene.

oh he was amazing

Lloyd Morrisett - founder of the Children's Television Workshop and co-creator of Sesame Street

from last june: Lucille Cataldo of Stairway to Stardom "Hairdresser" fame.
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/brooklyn-ny/lucille-cataldo-10789097
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu3VMqgx2MQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wK-Kl1AN8EM

Original Yardbirds guitarist Anthony "Top" Topham, 75

Honestly, never heard of him. Not sure if that qualifies as a coincidence or not so close to Jeff Beck--people get old. I might tread lightly for the next while if I were a couple of other living Yardbirds guitarists.

eric clapton has been dead inside for 60 years tbf

And Page sold his soul to the devil so he'll never die.

I'm always kinda shocked at how apparently hale the surviving Zeppelin guys are, considering the excesses of their prime

When one guy out of four dies, the other three will sometimes take the hint.

70s teen heartthrob Lance Kerwin: https://variety.com/2023/tv/obituaries-people-news/lance-kerwin-james-at-15-1235502420/

Sylvia Syms, 89
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-64426891

startled she was only 89!

but she was only 24 when she was in ice cold in alice

RIP. Every second film on Talking Pictures seems to star her. Not complaining though, she was gorgeous.

The well-respected Martin Clunes vehicle Staggered (feat. Sylvia Syms) filmed a scene opposite my parents house in Hendon. One of neighbours tried talking to Syms and she stormed off in a very “I am storming off” way

I'll always remember this scene from Return to Bosom Manor
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/14B25/production/_88937748_88937747.jpg

Fuck, seeing Tom Verlaine on twitter. Mentioned by someone who knew him.

nothing official yet?

Situations have ended sad
Relationships have all been bad
Mine have been like Verlaine's and Rimbaud's
But there's no way I can compare
All them scenes to this affair

RIP. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/28/arts/music/tom-verlaine-influential-guitarist-and-songwriter-dies-at-73.html

RIP.

Uncannily I've been reading Steve Kilbey's autobio and precisely last night was lol'ing at his account of misadventures with Verlaine while touring in the late '80s.

Alastair Brotchie, founder of Atlas Press, biographer of Alfred Jarry:

Very sad to learn of the loss of Alastair Brotchie - whose Atlas Press (founded with Malcolm Green) had a huge impact on my literary life. Many a glass will be raised to his memory tonight, mine among them.

— Kristofor Minta (@KristoforMinta) January 28, 2023

RIP

http://germinalproductions.com/Kevin/book-pics-bookartbookshop.jpg

^ that's him with his Atlas Press colleague, Tanya Peixoto

Oh yeah good publisher

This is the first time I’ve ever learned of the death of a non-ILx friend via ILx, it feels so strange.

I knew Alistair and he was a fine fellow, i loved drinking with him and I had a whole lot more to learn from him. He always had the best stories. Last couple of times I met Tanya, Alistair wasn’t well enough to come along. I’ll miss him.

Legendary in and around Toronto: Hazel McCallion.

https://www.cp24.com/news/hazel-mccallion-who-transformed-mississauga-during-36-year-tenure-as-mayor-dies-at-101-1.6250941

When she left office in 2013, she'd been mayor of Mississauga for 36 years and was over 90. She had some trouble near the end over conflict-of-interest charges.

xpost Sorry to hear that for sure. It's always nice to know someone had that good quality to them.

Tim, I'm so sorry you found out this way. Very glad to hear he was a good sort though. Really need to get hold of his Jarry book now

I'll be forever grateful to him and Atlas for publishing Desnos' "Liberty Or Love!" in English. Made an indelible impression on me. Rest In Peace.

My wife was complaining just this week about a ruling just made by some sort of environmental advisory board headed by Hazel McCallion.

Annie Wersching

https://deadline.com/2023/01/annie-wersching-dies-actress-in-24-bosch-and-timeless-was-45-obituary-1235243778/

Not mentioned from last week: Victor Navasky, journalist, former editor and later publisher of The Nation, 90

Barrett Strong

https://bestclassicbands.com/barrett-strong-obituary-motown-1-29-23/

Wow, RIP guy I had no idea you were still alive.

Annie Wersching

Very much a "oh, hey, it's her" performer; guest starred on a million things, often as a villain.

she had a good role as a somewhat bad-seed cop in Bosch season 1, she tended to elevate some often-thankless other supporting parts too and was usually memorable presence-wise in that respect vs a lot of other career tv actors.

Albert Okura, Juan Pollo founder, and owner of the old route 66 town of Amboy, California, which includes the famous Roy's Cafe used in many movies.

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/328119101_914414913135744_5326408843079168149_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=-Dgu0F0cxKkAX_d0tBi&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-2.xx&oh=00_AfBuvy27shNTJU_-9xUXGfRgi_HSDvA67WBy0a857hA64Q&oe=63DCD4B9

https://www.sbsun.com/2023/01/27/albert-okura-juan-pollo-founder-and-san-bernardino-staple-dies/

And a story that focuses more on Amboy.

https://www.sbsun.com/2014/08/17/a-look-at-juan-pollo-founder-albert-okuras-success-big-dreams/

Lisa Loring, who starting at age six played "Wednesday" on The Addams Family TV sitcom of the 1960s.

Interesting biographical fact: she was born on an atoll in the Marshall Islands.

early electronic music composer jaap vink:

Le GRM est triste d’apprendre la disparition du compositeur Jaap Vink (1930-2023)

GRM is sad to learn the death of the composer Jaap Vink (1930-2023) pic.twitter.com/kvi9YlAHIi

— INA grm (@Ina_GRM) January 30, 2023

Shame. I think there's only one album of his music ever been released and it's excellent.

hockey goal scoring man Bobby Hull

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/35557785/hall-famer-bobby-hull-golden-jet-dies-age-84

notably a p awful person iirc

Hull's life off the ice was often marred by controversy. He faced allegations of domestic abuse with two of his three wives. His second wife, figure skater Joanne McKay, alleged that he held her over a balcony and hit her with a shoe in an incident in Hawaii in 1966 and threatened her with a loaded shotgun in 1978. His third wife, Deborah, filed charges after an incident in 1984 but later dropped them. Hull, however, later pleaded guilty to taking a swing at an officer during his arrest and was fined $150 and placed on six months of court supervision.

In 1998, Hull came under fire for telling The Moscow Times that the Black population in the United States was growing too fast and that "Hitler had some good ideas" but "just went a bit too far."

Yyyikes