Rolling Obituary Thread: 2018

She was great in Freaky Friday.

I always remember her and the son playing baseball in flairs...

great quote in here about how she preferred rehearsing to the show

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/barbara-harris-dies-second-city-actress-freaky-friday-nashville/

Also she asked her hospice nurse "am I supposed to lay here til I die?"

Yeah, unfortunately :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BYyDusJYJo

I just watched Nashville this past weekend. :'(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0OhE6O-c0k

she was the Broadway star of On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, you know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TQxWrrzL-Y

per that sun-times article, she apparently also came from an improv background and was part of the first second city performance!

That's how she met up with Mike Nichols (who directed her on Broadway), Alan Alda, etc.

Apparently she wound up with terrible stage fright and quit the theatre (but kept teaching acting).

She was great in everything I ever saw her in. Funny. And Sexy. *loosens collar*

I used to have (might still have) a Second City coffee table book which had this great story about Harris calling in sick right before showtime one night. The audience was already being seated as the staff was called for an emergency meeting back stage to debate whether or not to go on with that night's performance (it was a semi-scripted show in which Harris did a lot of singing and acting). One of the waitresses spoke up and said she could cover for her, because even though she hadn't done much prior performing, she'd been studying Harris from the audience every night and knew the whole show. A chance was taken and the waitress brought the house down, soon becoming an official member of the troupe.

That waitress was Melinda Dillon (Close Encounters..., Slap Shot, A Christmas Story etc.).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLfeRy080kE

^A candidate for her greatest scene on film.

and not many years after that break, Melinda Dillon played Honey in the original staging of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

that Melinda Dillon story is amazing

Brian Murray, lauded stage actor/director (I saw him in the first Broadway production of Noises Off, you may have seen him in "30 Rock")

http://www.playbill.com/article/three-time-tony-award-nominee-brian-murray-dies-at-80

(oh, and i saw him do Claudius opposite Kevin Kline's Hamlet)

Lazy Lester, Louisiana blues artist ("I'm a Lover Not a Fighter", "Sugar Coated Love", "I Hear You Knocking") and inspiration for the Ponderosa Stomp festival in NOLA.

Stefan Karl Stefansson of Lazytown. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45264994

Spencer P Jones of Beasts of Bourbon

oh shit :(

I'm glum about Stefan Karl Stefansson. Used to watch Lazytown with my daughter all the time when she was a toddler.

my son loved it as well, he still watches sinister - chopped and screwed - horror versions of Lazytown on youtube. So I sort of feel like I have a long association with the departed gent, in my house.

There was a big online campaign to help him with his medical costs a few years ago, which my son followed closely as he was also a fan of the YouTube madness. It seemed like he was on the mend for a while, so very sad and surprised that he passed.

Ed King of Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Strawberry Alarm Clock

https://t.co/hVi50DGOAK

I'm so sad to share the passing of my friend, musical partner and hero Mako Sakamoto. Mako succumbed to illness on Tuesday. I don't know what I'm going to do without him. Please play his spirit loud with this piece .... He was the greatest. 😢 https://t.co/hVi50DGOAK

— Bernard Butler (@Bernard_Butler) August 23, 2018

I messed that up, sorry about that

RIP dude but what the hell is Bernard Butler doing at the start of that clip?

Stefan Karl Stefansson of Lazytown. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-45264994

― Three Word Username, Thursday, 23 August 2018 09:11 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I told my son Robbie Rotten died and he said "Is that the Sex Pistols guy?"

#BREAKING: Robin Leach, host of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," dies at 76 https://t.co/rPtg1voWDz

— KTLA (@KTLA) August 24, 2018

Russ Heath, Silver Age comic book artist who probably never got enough credit in the day - especially from those he commonly filled in for or did largely uncredited collaborative work with like Bob Kanigher, Will Elder and Harvey Kurtzman. Probably best known to the general public as being the source of Roy Lichtenstein's wealth.

https://www.newsarama.com/41535-russ-heath-passes-away.html

I really like Heath. You could make a great compilation of his work for Marvel or Warren but probably wont happen.

Lindsay Kemp

RIP Lindsay.

John McCain

Finally some good news for Trump!

Indeed - the Sunday shows this week will be 60 straight minutes of "respected" Washington "journalists" fellating a corpse.

Neil Simon.

Aw, damn.

"If this room was on fire, you wouldn't be hot!"

Shame, RIP Neil.

a great

Guess he just really wanted to outlive John McCain. Good for him.

next spring Eric H and i will be starring in The Sunshine Boys at the Mankato Dinner Theater. Don't miss it!

Neil Simon - gone! A loss 4 the entire entertainment industry.
He could write a joke that would make you laugh, define the character, the situation, and even the world's problems. First time I met him he looked at me and said, "Where the hell did they find you?" What a gent.

— Harvey Fierstein (@HarveyFierstein) August 26, 2018

I don't know if he ever did anything that interested me beyond The Heartbreak Kid and The Odd Couple, but that's enough right there.

Neil Simon's jokes and characters connected with Neil Simon's generation, which is a limited accomplishment, but making strangers laugh is always a difficult task and he succeeded at it.

loved Barefoot In The Park, and California Suite when I was a kid (I find most of it unwatchable now, tho).

I acted in Plaza Suite Act One just two weeks ago. The longer I worked on it, the more I understood the brilliance of the script.