Rolling Obituary Thread: 2020

wow he was hosting Jeopardy! two years longer than I've been alive. pretty sweet gig/life tbh

I love that Trebek basically insisted on working until he died. He obviously loved doing that show.

Only guy ever to make "game show host" seem like a noble pursuit.

well at least he outlasted connery

sad he slipped away in the middle of the joepardy tho

Canada had a second prominent death today: Howie Meeker. He was a Hockey Night in Canada regular when I used to watch as a kid. I think he had the same role as Don Cherry, intermission analysis, but of course none of Cherry's vitriol. He was most famous for his voice: excitable, high-pitched.

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/howie-meeker-death-hockey-night-in-canada-nhl-1.5794606

Have to admit, for a second there I was picturing Don Cherry the musician doing play by play for Hockey Canada, and it was... amusingly inconceivable.

Neneh Cherry used to cover curling up here for the CBC, but no.

Found this interesting from the obituary:

Dick Irvin, a fixture on HNIC for 33 years, told the Montreal Gazette in 2014 that Meeker was the first television analyst to break down the game and criticize players.

"'You can't do that!'" Irvin recalled Meeker saying. "'See what he did? That was wrong! That guy J.C. Tremblay should never have done that. Tim Horton made a mistake! Look at what he's doing there!'

Cosell was already doing that when Meeker moved over to the broadcast booth, but sounds like he was one of the first.

NYC's DJ Spinbad

Nelly Kaplan, Neo-surrealist French film director, writer and actor, 89. RIP, and fuck covid.

Playwright Israel Horovitz, aka King Ad-Rock's dad, 81.

Artist and icon Also Tambellini

Goddamnit.

Aldo Tambellini

RIP Andrew White-Howard U grad, sax player w/ his own band, & 5th Dimension, Julius Hemphill, & many more. John Coltrane solo transcriber, independent label owner, performer @ dc space, Kennedy Center and elsewhere, author of many self-published books about his wild adventures

Hanging out in hell with Jimmy Saville, Peter Sutcliffe https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/13/yorkshire-ripper-peter-sutcliffe-dies-aged-74

Frank Bruno running out of photo ops

Good riddance

he tried to attack a women and was chased off by her boyfriend in the Marsh area of Huddersfield in the late 70's and local legend has it, if he'd have caught him (he was from a rough-arsed Irish immi clan known as the Furey's who had a lot of street brawlers and pissheads amongst them) he'd have probably beaten him half to death at least. Disclaimer: this story might be apocryphal because it's one my mum told me, but I've heard it from plenty of other people as well! I can remember genuine fear as a kid when my mum was going out to work, she worked evening shifts at a town centre pub of ill repute known as the Burns' Tavern and I can remember thinking this mythical demon known as the Ripper might get my mum.

It sounded like the cunt was in wretched health and wanted to die anyway, so it might have been nice for him to live another few more years of miserable low quality life and suffering.

90s Country dude Doug Supernaw

Des O’Connor
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/nov/15/des-oconnor-tv-entertainer-dies-aged-88

Soumitra Chatterjee. Satyajit Ray's (elder) Apu among many other roles. RIP legend.

https://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/regional/actor-soumitra-chatterjee-passes-away-6719929/

Just saw that. RIP :(

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-54500364

Ray Clemence

Sad. I can still see the waves of applause as he ran towards the Gwladys Street end at Goodison in ‘80s derbies. Followed by 45min of abuse.

he seemed a much better person than Shilton, some argue he was a better keeper as well.

Jude Stéfan, French poet, 90. RIP.

he seemed a much better person than Shilton,

Bars don't come any lower. He did seem like a nice fellow though.

RIP Stéfan.

Eric "monster monster" Hall

Bruce Swedien, who engineered Thriller

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/bruce-swedien-audio-engineer-michael-jackson-dead-1091779/

Katy "Sheggi" Clarkson, singer of the Fat Tulips and the Melons

Writer and journalist #JanMorris has died at 94. Her son Twm has said in a statement - "This morning at 11.40 at Ysbyty Bryn Beryl, on the Llyn, the author and traveller Jan Morris began her greatest journey. She leaves behind on the shore her life-long partner, Elizabeth." pic.twitter.com/TqmcLtR42J

— Vincent Dowd (@dowdv) November 20, 2020

RIP. Love her book about Trieste

Pvmic, Dominic Grant, permanent fixture on 70s tv light entertainment as the front man of Guys 'n' Dolls.

https://metro.co.uk/2020/11/20/dominic-grant-dead-guys-n-dolls-singer-dies-suddenly-aged-71-13627794/

https://dailynous.com/2020/11/20/judith-jarvis-thomson-1929-2020/ :(

I imagine every philosophy undergrad has read some of her stuff. RIP

wow jan morris! amazing writer, crazy coincidemce because i just started the nyrb edition of HAV

The guy who invented the ice bucket challenge https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/nov/23/ice-bucket-challenge-co-creator-patrick-quinn-dies-aged-37

apparently someone known as the "Wildman of Widnes" has died according to UK twitter, he looked like a grotesque doorman/drug-dealer type that you'd cross the road to avoid!

rip

I was going to go a bit further down the wormhole and discover a bit more about this "maverick" but it was too grim!

with moaty in heaven no doubt

wildman's criminal career began when he did time for a "bit of kebab theft"

a lot more of that goes on that you'd expect, some people just want free kebabs

was it him making it smell so bad there?

he was brutalised by his older brother, who once beat him up with a broomstick after catching him throwing one off (and I don't mean throwing a bad kebab out of the window)

A broomstick? What year was that, 1785?

Is this some Twitter nonsense because googling Wildman of Widnes isn't bringing up very much of anything.

no he was real alright, I've just watched him on the True Geordie podcast on youtube, now I'm going to hell.