Rolling Obituary Thread 2023

Now I've read the family's messages, if not yet then imminent.

Among the stars with Halo now.

RIP to Tony Smith, creator of Gus Honeybun the South West television rabbit presenter from 1961 onwards - famous enough for Victoria Wood to have pastiched him.

Apparently SF author David Drake has passed, per a Wikipedia update. Charlie Jane Anders on Bluesky with warm thoughts:

https://bsky.app/profile/charliejane.bsky.social/post/3kgaaji2qmy2f

Shirley Anne Field.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/11/actor-shirley-anne-field-dies

Was just coming to post that. In several of my favourite films, with The Damned probably due a rewatch.

2000ad Twitter account has confirmed Ian Gibson has died

Andre Braugher

https://deadline.com/2023/12/andre-braugher-dead-homicide-life-on-the-street-brooklyn-nine-nine-actor-1235665513/amp/

Now that's a shock, so young. He was great on Brooklyn Nine Nine. RIP

Damn...he was so good for so long. First remember him from Glory, then obv he was legendary for Homicide.

he was incredible in Homicide where he had an intense character arc. RIP

FUCK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqNf2vcNLik

fuck no way
one of my favorite actors, i loved him in so many things!! ;_; the best to do it
homicide
get on the bus
gideon’s crossing
men of a certain age
last resort
brooklyn 99

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

I loved him in Glory, and feel bad that I somehow just… didn’t really see him in anything else (but there’s still time, of course),

15 years ago some genius put together this Pembleton montage with Matchbox 20 “Push” over top (lol)… but yknow its kinda hitting for me rn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_ngiDz0yk

I swear I think about this episode at least once every two weeks: "The Gas Man", in which Bruno Kirby & Richard Edson stalk Braugher who carries the episode by barely being in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdwm4ST_gGQ

I just rewatched the first few seasons of Homicide--one of my all time favorite tv shows--in which yeah he was so good. RIP

That sucks so much. I loved him as Pembleton - who doesn’t? - but I genuinely think his performance in B-99 is one of the greatest of all time - he’s just so fucking funny. We all knew he was good, but who knew he still had that in him? So many deliveries where I’d want to rewind and rewatch, in awe.

yeah he is so good in Brooklyn 99 in fact I kind of suspect it was intended to be a minor part as a lot of boss roles are but he was just so funny in it that they kinda made him the 2nd main character

also one of the few characters in sitcom history whose queerness is actually pretty well-written!

In Brooklyn Nine Nine, Andre Braugher was probably the greatest in a show filled with talent. Very sad to hear that he passed away at only 61 years.

otm re Captain Holt, one of the best sitcom characters ever. awful news :(

man thats a shock, he was great in everything i ever saw him in

I've seen him in a lot of movies and know him by face rather than name, rip

Andre Braugher was one of the top five greatest actors I've watched on TV.

My god he was so good in Homicide. The Adena Watson episode...

John Lydon manager John Rambo Stevens https://deadline.com/2023/12/john-rambo-stevens-dead-1235664462/

braugher was really one of the best actors of his generation. just gutting.

and to lose him and lance reddick in the same year…we’ve got a serious gravitas shortage

(xp) Appears to have been a total dick but sad for John L.

the stroke episode of Homicide was devestating

When I watched Andre Braugher on Homicide as a teen I thought he had some Al Pacino-level stardom ahead of him. He was totally riveting.

I love this bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg93zJiHJOs

Travis Dopp, guitarist from Small Brown Bike, RIP

Really funny up and coming comedian Kenny Deforest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0DGfLhg4o8

rip. he was a funny dude. so fuckin young

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/cari-beauchamp-dead-hollywood-historian-author-1235757275/

Film historian Cari Beauchamp, 74

Kenpachiro Satsuma, stuntman and kaiju suit actor including Godzilla in the 80s and 90s

RIP. His finest work:

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

RIP to Kenpachiro but jesus you scared me there

Oof, yeah, sorry. As far as I know Bobcat is fine (and might live kinda near me right now?).

Michel Ciment - I don't know his work outside his Kubrick book, which I love. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/15/movies/michel-ciment-dead.html

Detroit soul legend Amp Fiddler, 65.

Oh shit! RIP

Oh no! Legendary career of course, and my house-loving-but-crowd-hating self has been jamming quietly at home to this one for at least the last half decade:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkksfth--wU

Jim Ladd, LA Radio Veteran (KNAC, KLOS, KMET) dead at 75

https://lamag.com/arts-and-entertainment/jim-ladd-radio-veteran-siriusxm-dead

SXM Deep Tracks is playing a pretaped Jim Ladd show RIGHT NOW (and according to their schedule, it'll be flowed this evening by a taped shift from Dusty Street, who died in late October).

Oof.

Ok, it's actually Meg Griffin filling in for Ladd, playing songs suggested by his widow and other tracks that were close to him.

RIP. I don’t think I ever heard him or heard of him but of course I am familiar with Meg Griffin as well as the weird feeling of another DJ from one’s youth biting the dust.

I barely remember what my dad's voice sounded like, but I'll probably remember Jim Ladd's voice until the end of time. I'd love to see some playlists from the couple of years he was at KEDG in the late 80s when he eschewed much of the classic boomer rock and was playing stuff like Love And Rockets, The Church, Sonic Youth in between the Jim Morrison "is everybody in?" soundbites.

Ace Farren Ford of the Los Angeles Free Music Society scene has passed away, apparently.

Craig Stewart, founder of the Emperor Jones label. Others knew him personally, I defer to them, and simply say that his label was a real treasury over the years.