2012 Celebrity Death Pool

[Ramplate]

Designer of 'Star Wars' look dies in Calif. at 82

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Ralph McQuarrie, the artist who developed the look of the first "Star Wars" trilogy's signature characters, sets and spaceships, has died. He was 82.

McQuarrie's death Saturday at his Berkeley home was announced on his official website and Facebook page. John Scoleri, co-author of a book on McQuarrie's art, told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/Af82v3) that McQuarrie had suffered from Parkinson's disease.

In a statement on the official "Star Wars" website, George Lucas said McQuarrie was the first person he hired to help him envision what would become some of the top-grossing movies of all time.

"His genial contribution, in the form of unequaled production paintings, propelled and inspired all of the cast and crew of the original Star Wars trilogy," Lucas said. "When words could not convey my ideas, I could always point to one of Ralph's fabulous illustrations."

McQuarrie's original concepts included the look of some of pop culture's most recognizable characters, including Darth Vader, C-3P0 and R2-D2. He also created the look of the Stormtroopers and the lightsaber.

Other movies to which McQuarrie contributed concept illustrations included "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," ''E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," ''Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." He won an Academy Award for Visual Effects for his work on the 1985 film "Cocoon."

McQuarrie worked as a technical illustrator at Boeing Co. before his career in the film industry took off, the Times said. He saw combat in the Korean War and survived a bullet that pierced his helmet.

He is survived by his wife, sister and two stepsons, the Times said.

[Ramplate]

Comic book artist Moebius dies

Moebius, the French comic-book artist and designer whose spectacular science fantasy-based worked its magic on Hollywood classics such as "Alien" has died aged 73, after a long illness.

Moebius -- or Jean Henri Gaston Giraud -- was one of France's leading cartoonists, who also found fame in Japan and the United States.

"He died this morning following a long illness," a friend and colleague told AFP.

"The whole profession is in shock, totally devastated, even if we knew that he was seriously ill," Gilles Ratier, head of France's Association of Comic-Book Critics, told AFP.

Colleagues paid tribute to the artist who is generally acknowledged as having been one of the most daring and innovative in his field, and whose striking ideas reached across the world and into the world of cinema.

Giraud, who grew up drawing cowboys and indians, found fame when he created the western character Lieutenant Blueberry in 1963. He adopted the pseudonym Moebius for his illustrations in science fiction books and magazines.

He worked on top French magazines including the politically incorrect but visually arresting "Metal Hurlant" (Heavy Metal), a mixture of science fiction and epic fantasy, which was featured in a 1981 animated film of the same name.

He also collaborated with Japanese manga artists and even co-produced a adventure of US comic-book superhero The Silver Surfer, working with Stan Lee, himself a legend in the field.

And his influence spread into cinema, putting his stamp on the first "Alien" film and the science fiction adventure "Tron".

In 2010-11 France's Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art acknowledged his stature, staging a major retrospective of his work.

Giraud was born in Nogent-sur-Marne east of Paris on May 8, 1938.

After art school he began training as an illustrator for advertisers and the fashion industry before turning to comic strips.

"My ambition was tremendous," he once told AFP. "I wanted to rock, so everybody in the comic industry would be stunned."

Tributes were quick to come in as news of his death spread.

Fellow artist Boucq told AFP Moebius had been a "master of realist drawing" with "a real talent for humour, which he was still demonstrating with the nurses when I saw him in his hospital bed a fortnight ago".

Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, whose bestselling 1995 novel "The Alchemist" was illustrated by Moebius, paid tribute to his collaborator on Twitter.

"The great Moebius died today, but the great Moebius is still alive," he tweeted.

"Your body died today, your work is more alive than ever."

Benoit Mouchart, artistic director at France's Angouleme International Comics Festival, compared him to artistic giants such as Germany's Albrecht Durer and France's Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.

"France has lost one of its best known artists in the world," Mouchart told AFP. "In Japan, Italy, in the United States he is an incredible star who influenced world comics.

"Moebius will remain part of the history of drawing, in the same right as Durer or Ingres," he added.

"He was an incredible producer, he said he wanted to show what eyes do not always see."

French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said France had lost "two great artists", referring to Giraud and his alias.

In 2007 one of his drawings sold for 58,242 euros ($76,433) at an auction.

[Ramplate]

Doobie Brothers' drummer dies of cancer at age 65

(Reuters) - Mike Hossack, a longtime member of rock band The Doobie Brothers, has died of cancer at the age of 65, the band's manager said on Tuesday.

Hossack, who helped give the band its distinctive sound with two drummers in the early 1970s, died peacefully on Monday at his home in Dubois, Wyoming, manager Bruce Cohn said.

"Mike was a one-of-a kind guy and a longtime member of the Doobie Brothers," Cohn said in a statement. "He was a fighter and fought the big battle with cancer and I speak for Mike's family and the entire band when I say he will be greatly missed."

New Jersey-born Hossack began playing drums at the age of 12. After serving in the Navy in Vietnam in the late 1960s he was planning a career in law enforcement before getting his first gig with a California band called Mourning Reign.

That led to an invitation to join the northern California band The Doobie Brothers in 1971, where he became the second drummer and was heard on early hit songs like "Blackwater", "Listen to the Music" and "China Grove."

Hossack left the Doobie Brothers in 1973 and formed Bonaroo, worked with other bands, and became a partner in a Hollywood recording studio.

He rejoined the Doobie Brothers in 1987 for a series of benefit concerts for Vietnam war veterans, and remained with them when the band reformed to make albums like "Cycles", "Brotherhood" and 2010's "World Gone Crazy."

Founding member and guitarist Tom Johnston said Hossack was "an incredible musician, a studio quality drummer."

"The last few years, he was brave and determined to keep on playing in the face of ill health, and I will always admire him for that," Johnston said on Tuesday.

Doobie Brothers' singer and songwriter Pat Simmons said he and Hossack were friends for 43 years.

"We shared some wonderful adventures together, times I will never forget. Thanks for all those wonderful memories Mike, and all the great music. We love you," Simmons said.

[Ramplate]

Well, here's one I might have picked this year

John Demjanjuk, convicted death camp guard, dies

BERLIN (AP) — John Demjanjuk, a retired U.S. autoworker who was convicted of being a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp despite steadfastly maintaining over three decades of legal battles that he had been mistaken for someone else, died Saturday, his son told The Associated Press. He was 91.

Demjanjuk, convicted in May of 28,060 counts of being an accessory to murder and sentenced to five years in prison, died a free man in a nursing home in the southern Bavarian town of Bad Feilnbach. He had been released pending his appeal.

John Demjanjuk Jr. said in a telephone interview from Ohio that his father died of natural causes. Demjanjuk had terminal bone marrow disease, chronic kidney disease and other ailments.

It was not yet known whether he would be brought back to the U.S. for burial.

Ukrainian-born Demjanjuk (dehm-YAHN'-yook) had steadfastly denied any involvement in the Nazi Holocaust since the first accusations were levied against him more than 30 years ago.

"My father fell asleep with the Lord as a victim and survivor of Soviet and German brutality since childhood," Demjanjuk Jr. said. "He loved life, family and humanity. History will show Germany used him as a scapegoat to blame helpless Ukrainian POWs for the deeds of Nazi Germans."

His conviction helped set new German legal precedent, being the first time someone was convicted solely on the basis of serving as a camp guard, with no evidence of being involved in a specific killing.

Presiding Judge Ralph Alt said the evidence showed Demjanjuk was a piece of the Nazis' "machinery of destruction."

"The court is convinced that the defendant ... served as a guard at Sobibor" from March 27, 1943, until mid-September 1943, Alt said in his ruling.

Israeli Holocaust scholar Yehuda Bauer, who researches at the Yad Vashem memorial, said Demjanjuk's story showed an important moral lesson.

"You don't let people, even if they were only junior staff, get away from responsibility," Bauer said.

Despite his conviction, his family never gave up its battle to have his U.S. citizenship reinstated so that he could live out his final days nearby them in the Cleveland area. One of their main arguments was that the defense had never seen a 1985 FBI document, uncovered in early 2011 by The Associated Press, calling into question the authenticity of a Nazi ID card used against him.

Demjanjuk maintained that he was a victim of the Nazis himself — first wounded as a Soviet soldier fighting German forces, then captured and held as a prisoner of war under brutal conditions.

"I am again and again an innocent victim of the Germans," he told the panel of Munich state court judges during his 18-month trial, in a statement he signed and that was read aloud by his attorney Ulrich Busch.

He said after the war he was unable to return to his homeland, and that taking him away from his family in the U.S. to stand trial in Germany was a "continuation of the injustice" done to him.

"Germany is responsible for the fact that I have lost for good my whole reason to live, my family, my happiness, any future and hope," he said.

His claims of mistaken identity gained credence after he successfully defended himself against accusations initially brought in 1977 by the U.S. Justice Department that he was "Ivan the Terrible" — a notoriously brutal guard at the Treblinka extermination camp.

In connection with the allegation, he was extradited to Israel from the U.S. in 1986 to stand trial on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, convicted and sentenced to death. But the Israeli Supreme Court in 1993 overturned the verdict on appeal, saying that evidence showed another Ukrainian man was actually "Ivan the Terrible," and ordered him returned to the U.S.

The Israeli judges said, however, they still believed Demjanjuk had served the Nazis, probably at the Trawniki SS training camp and Sobibor. But they declined to order a new trial, saying there was a risk of violating the law prohibiting trying someone twice on the same evidence.

Demjanjuk returned to his suburban Cleveland home in 1993 and his U.S. citizenship, which had been revoked in 1981, was reinstated in 1998.

Demjanjuk remained under investigation in the U.S., where a judge revoked his citizenship again in 2002 based on Justice Department evidence suggesting he concealed his service at Sobibor. Appeals failed, and the nation's chief immigration judge ruled in 2005 that Demjanjuk could be deported to Germany, Poland or Ukraine.

Prosecutors in Germany filed charges in 2009, saying Demjanjuk's link to Sobibor and Trawniki was clear, with evidence showing that after he was captured by the Germans he volunteered to serve with the fanatical SS and trained as a camp guard.

Though there are no known witnesses who remember Demjanjuk from Sobibor, prosecutors referred to an SS identity card that they said features a photo of a young, round-faced Demjanjuk and that says he worked at the death camp. That and other evidence indicating Demjanjuk had served under the SS convinced the panel of judges in Munich, and led to his conviction.

He was ordered tried in Munich because he lived in the area briefly after the war.

Demjanjuk, who was removed by U.S. immigration agents from his home in suburban Cleveland and deported in May 2009, questioned the evidence in the German case, saying the identity card was possibly a Soviet postwar forgery.

He reiterated his contention that after he was captured in Crimea in 1942, he was held prisoner until joining the Vlasov Army — a force of anti-communist Soviet POWs and others formed to fight with the Germans against the Soviets in the final months of the war.

Demjanjuk was born April 3, 1920, in the village of Dubovi Makharintsi in central Ukraine, two years before the country became part of the Soviet Union. He grew up during a time when the country was wracked by famines that killed millions, and a wave of purges instituted by Stalin to eliminate any possible opposition.

As a young man Demjanjuk worked as a tractor driver for the area's collective farm. After being called up for the Soviet Red Army, he was wounded in action but sent back to the front after he had recovered, only to be captured during the battle of Kerch Peninsula in May 1942.

After the war, Demjanjuk was sent to a displaced persons camp and worked briefly as a driver for the U.S. Army. In 1950, he sought U.S. citizenship, claiming to have been a farmer in Sobibor, Poland, during the war.

Demjanjuk later said he lied about his wartime activities to avoid being sent back to Ukraine, then a part of the Soviet Union. Just to have admitted being in the Vlasov Army would also have been enough to have him barred from emigration to the U.S. or many other countries.

He came to the U.S. on Feb. 9, 1952, and eventually settled in Seven Hills, a middle-class suburb of Cleveland.

He was a mechanic at Ford Motor Co.'s engine plant in the Cleveland suburb of Brook Park and with his wife, Vera, raised three children — son John Jr. and daughters Irene and Lydia.

[Ramplate]

wow - waaaaay too young

Student-athlete Sam Wopat dies at 19
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2012/03...at-dies-at-19/

[Ramplate]

I didn't know he was still alive - he used to be a frequent guest on The Beverly Hillbillies with Lester Flat

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Bluegrass legend and banjo pioneer Earl Scruggs, who helped profoundly change country music with Bill Monroe in the 1940s and later with guitarist Lester Flatt, has died. He was 88.

[Fanible]

Originally Posted by Ramplate

wow - waaaaay too young

Student-athlete Sam Wopat dies at 19
http://www.stanforddaily.com/2012/03...at-dies-at-19/

The controversy over her cause of death is a little odd (or rather those making it out to be on each article). I understand you get family requests sometimes, but I guess it does seem weird seeing so many reports completely avoiding it.

[HotBoy 2.0]

http://www.lordsofpain.net/news/wwe/...ssed_Away.html

RIP Chief Jay Strongbow

[Ramplate]

Oh wow That's back when we had nothing but the wrestling show to watch on Sundays as a kid. Used to watch the Chief all the time that's back when Vince McMahon Held the microphone and did his own interviews and commentary.

===========================

Mark Lenzi, Olympic diving gold medalist, dead at 43

Mark Lenzi, the 1992 gold medalist in men's springboard, died Monday at age 43.

The American diver was hospitalized in Greenville, N.C. two weeks ago after suffering a series of fainting spells.

Lenzi earned gold at the Barcelona Olympics and followed it up with a bronze medal performance in Atlanta. He was an All-American diver at the Indiana University, winning championships in the one-meter springboard, three-meter springboard and platform events in 1989.

No American man has won a diving medal since Lenzi.

[Hollywood]

R.I.P. Dick Clark

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/dick-clark-...ies-at-82.html

[HotBoy 2.0]

Originally Posted by HOLLYWOOD

R.I.P. Dick Clark

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/dick-clark-...ies-at-82.html

Goodbye to the worlds oldest teenager!!!

[thebtskink]

Levon Helm. Damn.

[Ramplate]

Charles "Skip" Pitts, the longtime Memphis guitar player for Isaac Hayes whose distinctive sound helped define soul and make "Shaft" cool, has died. He was 65.

[allensc00th]

This is nice to read and I kind like it

[Ramplate]

[Ramplate]

Finally, this one was on my list last year

Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the former Libyan intelligence official who was sentenced to life in prison in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, has died, the Libyan government said on Sunday. He was 60.

[Tolkien]

Anyone had Robin Gibb? He just died from cancer.



R.I.P. mate, and thank you for the memorable tunes!

[Ramplate]

Eugene Polley, inventor of TV remote, dies at 96

CHICAGO (AP) — Couch potatoes everywhere can pause and thank Eugene Polley for hours of feet-up channel surfing. His invention, the first wireless TV remote, began as a luxury, but with the introduction of hundreds of channels and viewing technologies it has become a necessity.

Just ask anyone who's lost a remote.

Polley died of natural causes Sunday at a suburban Chicago hospital, said Zenith Electronics spokesman John Taylor. The former Zenith engineer was 96.

[Ramplate]

'Family Feud' TV host Richard Dawson has died

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Richard Dawson, the wisecracking British entertainer who was among the schemers in the 1960s sitcom "Hogan's Heroes" and a decade later began kissing thousands of female contestants as host of the game show "Family Feud" has died. He was 79.

Dawson, also known to TV fans as the Cockney POW Cpl. Peter Newkirk on "Hogan's Heroes," died Saturday night from complications related to esophageal cancer at Ronald Reagan Memorial hospital, his son Gary said.

The game show, which initially ran from 1976 to 1985, pitted families who tried to guess the most popular answers to poll questions such as "What do people give up when they go on a diet?"

Dawson won a daytime Emmy Award in 1978 as best game show host. Tom Shales of The Washington Post called him "the fastest, brightest and most beguilingly caustic interlocutor since the late great Groucho bantered and parried on 'You Be Your Life.'" The show was so popular it was released as both daytime and syndicated evening versions.

He was known for kissing each woman contestant, and at the time the show bowed out in 1985, executive producer Howard Felsher estimated that Dawson had kissed "somewhere in the vicinity of 20,000."

"I kissed them for luck and love, that's all," Dawson said at the time.

He reprised his game show character in a much darker mood in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger film "The Running Man," playing the host of a deadly TV show set in a totalitarian future, where convicts try to escape as their executioners stalk them. "Saturday Night Live" mocked him in the 1970s, with Bill Murray portraying him as leering and nasty, even slapping one contestant (John Belushi) for getting too fresh.

The British-born actor already had gained fame as the fast-talking Newkirk in "Hogan's Heroes," the CBS comedy about prisoners in a Nazi POW camp who hoodwink their captors and run the place themselves.

Despite its unlikely premise, the show made the ratings top 10 in its first season, 1965-66, and ran until 1971.

Both "Hogan's Heroes" and "Family Feud" have had a second life in recent years, the former on DVD reissues and the latter on GSN, formerly known as the Game Show Network.

On Dawson's last "Family Feud" in 1985, the studio audience honored him with a standing ovation, and he responded: "Please sit down. I have to do at least 30 minutes of fun and laughter and you make me want to cry."

"I've had the most incredible luck in my career," he told viewers.

"I never dreamed I would have a job in which so many people could touch me and I could touch them," he said. That triggered an unexpected laugh.

Producers brought out "The New Family Feud," starring comedian Ray Combs, in 1988. Six years later, Dawson replaced Combs at the helm, but that lasted only one season.

According to the Internet Movie Database, Dawson was born Colin Lionel Emm in 1932 in Gosport, England. His first wife was actress Diana Dors, the blond bombshell who was Britain's answer to Marilyn Monroe.

[Neverending]

I'm more shocked he was still alive.

Regardless, R.I.P.

[JBond]

That sucks, I'd watch that show all the time.

[Ramplate]

I was a big fan of Hogan's Heroes when I was a kid, and Newkirk was my favorite

[Ramplate]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Bob Welch, a former member of Fleetwood Mac who went on to write songs and record several hits during a solo career, died Thursday of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. He was 65.

I think he had health problems

[Ramplate]

Wow here's one from the "I didn't know they were still alive" category


Frank Cady, ‘Green Acres’ actor, dies at 96

Frank Cady, 96, a character actor who played Hooterville general-store proprietor Sam Drucker on the TV sitcoms "Green Acres" and "Petticoat Junction," died Friday at his home in Wilsonville, Ore., said his daughter, Catherine Turk. No specific cause was given.

Like Mr. Haney, Eb Dawson, Hank Kimball and Arnold the Pig, Cady’s Sam Drucker was a supporting cast member on "Green Acres" to lawyer Oliver Wendell Douglas and his socialite wife, Lisa, played by Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor, who had ditched the high life in New York City for the charms of a farm in Hooterville.

Cady played Drucker for the entire run of "Green Acres" on CBS, from 1965 to 1971, when it was canceled. The show continued to air for years in syndication. He also portrayed Drucker on "Petticoat Junction" and "The Beverly Hillbillies," programs that shared some secondary characters. He reprised the role for the 1990 TV movie "Return to Green Acres."

Cady had a recurring role as Doc Williams on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" and had guest roles in TV series beginning in the early 1950s. He also had small parts in films, most notably Alfred Hitchcock’s "Rear Window," and appeared in Southern California stage productions.

He was born Sept. 8, 1915, in the Lassen County, Calif., town of Susanville and studied drama at Stanford University. After serving in the military during World War II, he worked as a radio broadcaster before landing acting jobs.

Cady and his wife, Shirley, moved to Oregon in the 1990s. She died in 2008.

Reflecting on his TV career, Cady told the Portland Oregonian in 1995, "You get typecast. I’m remembered for those shows and not for some pretty good acting jobs I did other times. I suppose I ought to be grateful for that. Because otherwise I wouldn’t be remembered at all. I’ve got to be one of the luckiest guys in the world."

[Ramplate]

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ann Rutherford, the demure brunette actress who played the sweetheart in the long-running Andy Hardy series and Scarlett O'Hara's youngest sister in "Gone With the Wind," has died. She was 94.