Rolling Obituary Thread: 2017

RIP. Re-reading his books as a middle-aged adult has been so rewarding.

Jazz guitarist John Abercrombie. Listening to his 1975 album Timeless now (Jan Hammer on keyboards, Jack DeJohnette on drums) and it's amazing. Some really delicate stuff, then some wild prog-fusion explosions like a cross between Tony Williams Lifetime and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

Actor Jay Thomas (Cheers, Murphy Brown, David Letterman, etc.) - http://www.nydailynews.com/amp/entertainment/gossip/confidential/comic-actor-jay-thomas-dead-69-article-1.3439508

aw man :(

he wasn't Carla's best husband but he was still funny. RIP

i seem to remember him as a DJ in the '70s, then he started popping up on sitcoms

Yes. Believe he was the morning man on 99X.

Maybe that explains why he did the narration on all those "Best of Ed Sullivan" music specials on VH1.

http://www.nyradionews.com/wxlo/

my dorm's radio station used the wxlo call letters because someone found a bunch of old carts from it. they had to eventually change the call letters because the company who now owns the station got wind of the brand infringement by a carrier current am station that barely reached the third floor of the building that housed it. but i guess it was a learning experience about trademarks for the students who had to deal with it.

Aw damn, Jay Thomas. Though he got kicked off Cheers for some very unkind comments about Rhea Perlman irrc

Oh, I didn't realise that was who he was. I liked him in Cheers. But I pretty much liked everyone in Cheers.

TBF everyone in Cheers was great

i didn't like ted danson's acting on cheers. a performance based on a few tics. strange since he's done good things since then.

u crazy, but this is neither the time or place.

Tobe Hooper

variety.com/2017/film/news/tobe-hooper-dead-dies-texas-chain-saw-massacre-poltergeist-director-dies-1202539868/

Relatively close to George Romero. My memory is that it was actually my second screening of Texas Chainsaw Massacre--early one morning on a local station that got really adventurous for a couple of years--that was the memorable one. First time was a badly mangled print in a theatre.

See, this year seems to have fewer big names dying compared to 2016, but in 2016 Trump wasn't president.

RIP :(

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a peak in American cinema.

the sound design is incredible & it has one of the best endings ever. RIP

I've only ever seen the ending, funnily enough..

Love his early films. Didn't even know about his last two, a zombie film hardly anyone has seen and one in United Arab Emirates. Kind of want to check out Night Terrors. I Feel worse about this because he seemed to have rotten luck for the longest time.

RIP Tobe Hooper. Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the best horror movie.

Seriously sucks. Dude made two super classic horror films (I'll go ahead and give him Poltergeist) and a solid handful of others I like a lot. RIP.

And so soon after Romero! Stay healthy, Carpenter, et al!

I was looking at some birthdays and was shocked to learn that Joe Dante is a tad older than Carpenter. I hope all these old horror coots push it as hard as they can.

Legendary Austin Music Writer & Scenester Margaret Moser.

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/music/2017-08-26/margaret-moser-1954-2017/

Mireille Darc, lead actress in Godard's Weekend

https://www.google.com/amp/deadline.com/2017/08/mireille-darc-dead-le-grand-blond-french-actress-1202157223/amp/

Was just thinking of Weekend too.

Just re-watched it a few weeks ago actually, and it's still magnificently savage/funny.

Bernard Pomerance, Tony-winning playwright of The Elephant Man

http://deadline.com/2017/08/bernard-pomerance-has-died-elephant-man-playwright-was-76-1202157773/

rollie massimino, basketball coach

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2017%2F0829%2Fr250863_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&w=1006&h=566&scale=crop&cquality=80&location=origin

Canadian-centric: Skip Prokop, drummer for Lighthouse and the Paupers.

http://www.durhamradionews.com/archives/104709

I mentioned interviewing him 30 years ago on a Monterey thread, I think--never knew until recently that the Paupers performed there.

Shelley Berman

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/09/01/obituaries/shelley-berman-dead-comedian.html?referer=http://criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=594883

old-comedian ranks thinning fast this summer

Richard Anderson, supporting actor in Forbidden Planet, Paths of Glory, and those bionic shows

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/richard-anderson-dead-six-million-855240

XP Schecky Greene better check in with a health professional asap.

Mort Sahl too

Cool trivia on Richard Anderson is that he once was in the cast of two different primetime shows that ran simultaneously (different time slots) on two competing networks. Because one bionic show was on ABC and the other on NBC in 1977-78. He and his cast-mate Martin E. Brooks may be the only actors who have pulled this off. (Imdb mentions other actors with two shows, but they don't address the two different networks part).

Pears' Cyclopaedia :(

Ann Jellicoe, playwright who wrote the Knack, and also directed my mother in Woking's community play.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/sep/01/ann-jellicoe-obituary?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Apparently Walter Becker?

https://walterbecker.com

Fagen had said a couple of months back that Becker was recovering from a procedure but gave no further details.

wait that goes to a weird federalist site. try

http://www.walterbecker.com/

oh no no no. met him once without having any idea who he was despite SD being one of the most important bands for me ever -- I will write more on their thread I guess.

aw shit :(

RIP, one of the COAT

That was GOAT and I hate my phone and thumbs

Coolest, tbf

real punch in the gut if this is the case

Noooo ...

it's legit, I am legit sad.