Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

She deserves to be better known by me, but according to Letterboxd I've only seen her in four movies: 100 Rifles, Myra Breckinridge, Naked Gun 33 1/3, and Legally Blonde (I didn't mark it as "watched," but I have vague memories of seeing bits of The Magic Christian on TV when I was young). A lot of her work seems very sixties-specific, for lack of a better term. She is also credited as appearing in The Flintstones: Hollyrock a Bye Baby (1993), in which I can only assume she played "Rock-el Welch."

You've never seen Fantastic Voyage!?!??!

her muppet show appearance is a vivid memory from my childhood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojegHx3LfE4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyiALn0e3P8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E24qwHLQNUM

With the giant spider? Haven't clicked yet.

yep! also w miss piggy, and with fozzie

Interesting that they did the Peggy Lee signature tune “I’m a Woman,” given the history of Miss Piggy being based on Peggy Lee, in fact named Miss Piggy Lee before Peggy Lee threatened to sue.

But Raquel… I mentioned it here recently but check out her 1970 TV variety special called Raquel! for some jaw-dropping concepts in choreography and visions of the future.

Her Seinfeld episode showed she had a great sense of humour about herself.

Was just listening to "One's On The Way" by Loretta Lynn (written by Shel Silverstein), and noticed that Welch was the last of the celebrities* namechecked in it to die.

*The others being Liz Taylor, Jackie O, and Debbie Reynolds.

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/music/2023/02/15/spencer-wiggins-dies-obit-memphis-soul-music-history/69907734007/

Memphis singer Spencer Wiggins recorded soul for Fame and Goldwax labels and gospel for others. Was beloved by soul fanatics in UK, Italy, Japan, and in Memphis and New Orleans, but was never a big star. RIP

raquel in very "space is the place" mode here

RIP Raquel Welch. Her 1960’s TV special is a welcome addition to any YouTube gathering. pic.twitter.com/Hs7QCG7KKt

— Nicholas Verso (@NickVerso) February 15, 2023

Raquel Welch and her legendary Space Dance pic.twitter.com/YZVrZcJ9EC

— Nicholas Verso (@NickVerso) February 15, 2023

(clips retweeted by sometime-ilxor mc zirconium's project moonbase account)

My friend, the cartoonist and comedy club host Paul Jay aka Eugene Cheese:

https://beyondthejoke.co.uk/content/13123/eugene-cheese-dies

god how can i see the last of sheila in the uk it sound intersting

Sorry to hear about your friend, Ward

Thank you Alba. I'm hoping he makes the Guardian's 'Other Lives' column at least.

You've never seen Fantastic Voyage!?!??!

Nope! I'll get to it one day.

Thank you Alba. I'm hoping he makes the Guardian's 'Other Lives' column at least.

They can also upgrade to a regular obit if the person is deemed particularly noteworthy - we managed it for my friend’s dad across all the papers (he also wound up with a lovely slot on Last Word on R4).

link please?

The Guardian:

https://amp.theguardian.com/science/2009/oct/01/john-wild-obituary

Last Word:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mrzf9

Aw, I was relating a Eugene Cheese/chuckle club/Lee Evans tale over the weekend!

xp Amazing, thanks, Suzy! I didn't know any of that---

Super Sky Point to Tim McCarver, who played 21 years in the big leagues before becoming one of the most prominent announcers in the game. 100% chance he greeted St. Peter with a Bob Gibson story before reuniting with his old friend. Maybe they’ll have a bullpen today. #RIP pic.twitter.com/ZW4D7pSNyj

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) February 16, 2023

Stella Stevens, Starlet of the Sixties and ‘Nutty Professor’ Actress, Dies at 84

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/stella-stevens-dead-nutty-professor-1235328909/

she was, as i've mentioned in other threads, my first moment of heterosexual realization at age 8 or so

Ann-Margret, happily still alive.

Damn, scared me for a moment there.

My best "found something stashed in a book/magazine" story is about how 10-something years ago I bought a huge lot of '60s Playboys on eBay, and found in one of the issues the unlisted bonus of a folded pin-up of Stevens from an issue of either Variety or the Hollywood Reporter, plus a personally autographed glossy headshot--both of which had seen better days, but it was still pretty cool.

Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu, in the Turkey earthquake.

Oh no. RIP Stella, what a babe. Interesting (to me) that she was in a relationship with guitarist Bob Kulick for nearly 40 years (he died a couple of years ago).

Yes, interesting to a few of us.

Also the "married at 15, kid at 16, divorced at 17" thing.

seeing word that Richard Belzer may have passed. no official reporting yet that I can find

A bunch of dorks on twitter are clouding the issue saying it's a hoax, but Belzer's irl friends are tweeting condolences and sharing thoughts about him, and I'm inclined to believe they have better sources than the usual "it's a hoax!" posts.

RS is reporting it now.

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/richard-belzer-comedy-legend-law-amp-order-svu-detective-john-munch-dead-obit-1234682788/

;_;

CNN reporting too---did not know the character went back to these prev. shows (Homicide was based on David Simon's nonfiction book, maybe with a Munch-like cop? Seems likely, at least now)

Belzer was famed for his role as Detective Munch, first appearing on NBC’s “Homicide: Life on the Street” from 1993 to 1999. He reprised that role in the TV movie “Homicide: The Movie” in 2000 and also appeared as the famed detective in four episodes of “Law & Order.”

Belzer appeared as Munch again in “Law & Order: SVU,” where he became a series regular, appearing in 326 episodes between 1999 and 2016. Though his character retired in 2013, he returned in two additional episodes after his departure.

Like Belzer himself, detective Munch had a conspiratorial mindset, a Jewish background and a dry sense of humor. His scrawny, wisecracking, glasses-wearing investigator became over time one of the most recognizable cops in TV crime show history.

“I would never be a detective, but if I were, that’s how I’d be,” he said in a recent interview with The Boomer Tube. “The character is very close to how I would be. They write to all my paranoia and anti-establishment dissidence and conspiracy theories, so it’s been a lot of fun for me. It’s been a dream actually.”

Dickie Davies, ITV sports presenter, 89.

Munch character was based on irl Jay Landsman in Simon’s Homicide book

Thanks! Was thinking I should also check around for some of his 70s comedy albums (often compared to Lenny Bruce), as well as any bits of the music.

Dickie Davies is one for the people who you thought was at least in his 90's column.

Another regular in the people you thought were dead thread dead.

This is a really good book...

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/A1LakgMPJmL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

xp

Now that people who seemed like mouldering old corpses still in existence when I was 15 years old are only just dying now, it possibly gives me false hope ... or maybe even real despair that still I've got decades left to live yet.. lol.

RIP Belz. Munch was the lynchpin between many televisual worlds: https://www.ranker.com/list/all-the-tv-universes-unified-by-detective-munch/jacob-shelton

Homicide is fantastic and highly recommended for those who only know him from Law and Order.

Also in that RS article was that he warmed up the crowd in the early SNL shows.

Never saw a single episode of L&O but I’m thrown by how hard the loss of Belzer hits. He was kind of the quintessential cool comedian.

He was better on Homicide than on L&O because Homicide was a much, much better-written show than SVU has ever been. That said, Belzer and Ice-T made a great comedy team.

I only recently saw Homicide for the first time, after some Wire bingeing, and loved Munch in it! He was much more blabby, cranky and tin-foil-hattish. I loved it.

I’m thrown by how hard the loss of Belzer hits. He was kind of the quintessential cool comedian.

Same, I first saw Belzer on 70s late night TV - Midnight Special and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert and he was kinda the first person I recognized as being a stand-up comic.

Composer Gerald Fried, 95. Worked with Kubrick and Roger Corman before moving to television and composing hours and hours of background music.

He's probably most famous now for composing this background theme:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCamCYip2t4

Munch only seemed similar to Landsman from the book in that they both had an acidic sense of humor. Belzer’s personality largely informed the character in the early seasons of Homicide to the point where you really had to suspend disbelief that this was a cop.

belzer was at least a decade older than i thought he was. rip