Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

Lord Armstrong, 93 - a lengthy career as a senior civil servant whose contribution to posterity will only ever be popularising the phrase "economical with the truth".

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/apr/04/former-top-civil-servant-lord-armstrong-of-ilminster-dies-aged-93

The Marquess of Bath, owner of Longleat (he of the "wifelets"), 87, Covid-19.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-52173794

Shirley Douglas:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/shirley-douglas-dies-at-86-1.5522758

Kiefer Sutherland's mother, an activist, and--most relevant to the current situation--her father was Tommy Douglas, the architect of Canada's health system back in the late '50s.

Honor Blackman

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/apr/06/honor-blackman-james-bond-pussy-galore-avengers-dies-aged-94

Just heard 😢

She was also a staunch republican, and turned down a CBE in 2002 to avoid being a “hypocrite”.

nice

RIP Honor Blackman, one of the first women to popularize martial arts and self defense training

http://fightland.vice.com/blog/how-honor-blackman-brought-womens-self-defense-to-television

pooshy

RIP Honor. Not many people can have looked as good as she did for as long as she did!

Grime rapper Black The Ripper

did he die from embarrassment at that name

Doesn't seem to be COVID-related (there was a health-related fundraiser for him last year) - pianist Onaje Allan Gumbs.

Baseball Hall of Famer Al Kaline

There's a great joke in the Avengers where Stead gets a post card from Cathy from Fort Knox.

Louis Johnson the choreographer for the movies Cotton Goes to Harlem and The Wiz, who also got a Tony award, worked with Balanchine, and taught dance at Howard u in DC has passed due to coronavirus

http://outandaboutnycmag.com/3-31-20-oa-nyc-in-memorium-dancer-choreographer-louis-johnson-dies-at-90/

One of the football world's greatest artists has passed away. Italian graphical designer Piero Gratton has died 80 years old.

Gratton leaves behind a great legacy since he designed the former Roma wolf, the old Lazio crest, the rooster of Bari and the UEFA logo.#design #badges pic.twitter.com/kYntu6sETa

— World Football Club Crests (@WorldClubCrests) April 7, 2020

Hal Willner, coronavirus.

https://variety.com/2020/music/obituaries-people-news/hal-willner-dead-dies-music-producer-saturday-night-live-1234573202/

Fuck.

Damn

Made several of my favorites. Of his super sessions, Stay Awake and Weird Nightmare are most awesome.

Weird Nightmare is indeed all time great. RIP

Stay Awake, man. That thing is a legend. He was a legend.

shit, that's a loss.

That NBC Sunday Night Music show that Hal Willner produced was awesome- Sun Ra, Al Green, Sonic Youth, lots of unexpected collaborations. All on network tv, albeit late Sunday night but still. So sad he’s gone

So saddened to hear about Hal Willner. His production on Marianne Faithfull's Strange Weather was perfect. Really hoping for Marianne to make it through this fking outbreak.

Stay Awake is one of a maybe a dozen records that totally changed how I think about music. I didn’t ever respond much to Disney in context, but out of context he made me see the artistry. Made me a much less dismissive hipster.

The Kurt Weill one too, though I was already on the path there, it made Brecht accessible for me.

john prine

Oof

2020 shaping up to be a 2016-level shitshow.

Allen Garfield

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/allen-garfield-dead-actor-conversation-stunt-man-nashville-was-80-1289151

A weird one to single out, but he's great as the asshole label guy in One-Trick Pony.

I also love the story about how Altman cast him in Nashville because they ran into each other in a bar at the Cannes Festival; Altman told him he was perfect for the roll, down to his clothes, which he made him wear in the film.

is he the guy that gives Harry a hard time in The Conversation and puts the pen mic in his jacket at the lil spy party? Just rewatched that a couple days ago, Coppola's best

Yes.

So great in Nashville as well obviously, also rewatched that fairly recently

"I CAN'T STOP THAT BLOOD, MAN!!"

linda tripp, 70

Hillary took her sweet time with that one

(very promising) rapper Chynna, 25.

Mad artist Mort Drucker:

https://www.newsfromme.com/2020/04/09/mort-drucker-r-i-p/

i always picture celebrities in my mind in his style

my favourite Mad artist from my youthful Mad obsession

Richard Teitelbaum, Dead At 80

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/09/831173527/richard-teitelbaum-experimentalist-with-an-earth-spanning-ear-dead-at-80?fbclid=IwAR1wev5j7zGpjL56f2sgCIurzc9AZCY5AftxPLyFhvlPhO0IqEwhGgw52PI

He was an amazing artist

Phyllis Lyon, a gay rights pioneer in SF

RIP Richard T. Grim cavalcade of casualties so far this year.

those Drucker-drawn movie parodies were the best

Hausu director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

per the lincoln center film twitter at least:

R.I.P. Nobuhiko Ôbayashi (1938-2020) pic.twitter.com/nlmzsWjpEd

— Film at Lincoln Center (@FilmLinc) April 10, 2020