Carol Vadnais obit

New York Rangers great Carol Vadnais dies at 68

Former New York Rangers captain and six-time NHL all-star Carol Vadnais died at age 68 Sunday.

 

He was not on the list.

Carol Vadnais, who will always have a special place in hockey history, died at age 68, the New York Rangers announced Sunday. A cause of death was not announced, but former Canadiens teammate Serge Savard told Le Journal de Montreal (via the New York Times) that Vadnais had been suffering from cancer.

The longtime NHL defenseman will be in hockey history books for years to come as he was part of one of the biggest trades in league history when the Boston Bruins traded him along with Hall of Famer Phil Esposito to the New York Rangers for Brad Park, Jean Ratelle and Joe Zanussi in 1975.

Vadnais appeared in 1,087 games, 485 of which came as a member of the Rangers. The blueliner, who also spent time with the Oakland/California Golden Seals, Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils, posted 587 career points and appeared in six NHL All-Star games over his 17-year career.

His best season came as a member of the Boston Bruins in 1974-75 when he had 74 points. He also won two Stanley Cups, first with the Habs in 1968, then with the Bruins in 1972.

According to the Rangers, Vadnais is survived by his daughter and two grandchildren.

 

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season             Playoffs

Season Team            League            GP            G            A            Pts            PIM            GP            G            A            Pts            PIM

1963–64            Montreal NDG Monarchs            MMJHL          44            39            49            88            90            17            7            15            22            34

1963–64            Montreal NDG Monarchs            M-Cup            —            —            —            —            —            13            13            11            24            12

1964–65            Montreal Jr. Canadiens            OHA            56            9            16            25            74            7            1            0            1            13

1965–66            Montreal Jr. Canadiens            OHA            48            9            14            23            184            10            1            4            5            24

1966–67            Montreal Canadiens            NHL            11            0            3            3            35            1            0            0            0            2

1966–67            Houston Apollos            CPHL            21            5            5            10            45            —            —            —            —            —

1967–68            Montreal Canadiens            NHL            31            1            1            2            31            1            0            0            0            0

1967–68            Houston Apollos            CPHL            36            5            21            26            178            —            —            —            —            —

1968–69            Oakland Seals NHL            76            15            27            42            151            7            1            4            5            10

1969–70            Oakland Seals NHL            76            24            20            44            212            4            2            1            3            15

1970–71            California Golden Seals            NHL            42            10            16            26            91            —            —            —            —            —

1971–72            California Golden Seals            NHL            52            14            20            34            106            —            —            —            —            —

1971–72            Boston Bruins   NHL            16            4            6            10            37            15            0            2            2            43

1972–73            Boston Bruins   NHL            78            7            24            31            127            5            0            0            0            8

1973–74            Boston Bruins   NHL            78            16            43            59            123            16            1            12            13            42

1974–75            Boston Bruins   NHL            79            18            56            74            129            3            5            6            0

1975–76            Boston Bruins   NHL            12            2            5            7            17            —            —            —            —            —

1975–76            New York Rangers            NHL            64            20            30            50            104            —            —            —            —            —

1976–77            New York Rangers            NHL            74            11            37            48            131            —            —            —            —            —

1977–78            New York Rangers            NHL            80            6            40            46            115            3            0            2            2            16

1978–79            New York Rangers            NHL            77            8            37            45            86            18            2            9            11            13

1979–80            New York Rangers            NHL            66            3            20            23            118            9            1            2            3            6

1980–81            New York Rangers            NHL            74            3            20            23            91            14            1            3            4            26

1981–82            New York Rangers            NHL            50            5            6            11            45            10            1            0            1            4

1982–83            New Jersey Devils            NHL            51            2            7            9            64            —            —            —            —            —

NHL totals            1,087            169            418            587            1,813            106            10            40            50            185

Jimi Jamison obit

Ex-Survivor Singer Jimi Jamison Died of Stroke, Drugs

An autopsy report shows that Jimi Jamison, the lead singer on Survivor hits such as "Burning Heart" and "Is This Love," died of a stroke with methamphetamine intoxication. 

He was not on the list.

Jimi Jamison, who has died aged 63 of a heart attack, was the lead singer of the US rock band Survivor from 1984 to 1988, again from 2000 to 2006, and then from 2011 until his death. The group was formed in Chicago in 1978 and enjoyed a huge international hit in 1982 with Eye of the Tiger, which appeared on the soundtrack to Sylvester Stallone's boxing movie Rocky III and featured vocals by David Bickler. Bickler was forced to leave the band due to polyps on his vocal cords, and Jamison replaced him. His powerful vocal style was a perfect fit for Survivor's brash, often overblown songs. As the group's guitarist, Jim Peterik, said: "Very few bands can survive a lead singer transplant [but] Jimi had the most magical voice I'd ever heard."

One of his best-known vocal performances came in 1985 with Survivor's Burning Heart, which appeared on the soundtrack of Rocky IV. Other hits featuring Jamison included Is This Love?, Man Against the World (which he co-wrote) and The Moment of Truth, which appeared on the soundtrack to The Karate Kid (1984).

Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Jamison learned to sing and play the guitar and piano by his early teens and formed his first band, the Brutes, at school. "We were surrounded with rhythm and blues and soul music," recalled Jamison, "so naturally I was influenced by the sounds of Stax Records and soul music. I even learned to play trumpet, because what's a soul band without a trumpet and sax?" After stints with local bands, Jamison became the singer of the heavy rock band Cobra and supplied backing vocals for well-known artists such as ZZ Top and Joe Walsh.

In his first, four-year stint with Survivor, Jamison sang on three albums with the group, embarking on a solo career after a split in 1989. While Survivor was his biggest-selling band, Jamison might well have gone still further had he accepted an offer to join Deep Purple the same year. "I really wanted to play with that band. It was an honour just to be asked," he recalled. "I had just finished my first solo record [When Love Comes Down], and they wanted me to go out and promote it … I had to tell Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord [of Deep Purple] that I couldn't join."

In the following decade, legal troubles divided the Survivor members: the group re-formed in 1993 with Bickler on vocals, while Jamison toured under the Survivor name. After securing a hit in 1994 with I'm Always Here, a theme tune for later seasons of the TV series Baywatch, Jamison replaced Bickler for a second time in 2000, leaving again six years later.

In recent years the testosterone-driven nature of Survivor's material was occasionally the subject of some ridicule: the band agreed to appear in a 2005 advertisement for the coffee chain Starbucks, which featured the Jamison-fronted line-up performing a parody of Eye of the Tiger. The advert was rewarded with an Emmy nomination, however, and the critical and commercial response to Survivor albums such as Reach (2006) remained positive.

In 2013, Survivor toured with both vocalists, all legal issues having been resolved. Between commitments with the band, Jamison continued to write and record solo material, and teamed up with the sometime Toto singer Bobby Kimball on the project Kimball/Jamison.

Jamison is survived by his wife, Debbie, and their three children, Amy, James and Lacy.

Andrew V. McLaglen obit

Acclaimed film director, Andrew McLaglen, dead at 94

Born into a theatrical family with a rich cinematic history, Andrew V. McLaglen became a film industry luminary in his own right, directing 28 full-length feature films, largely Western and action-adventure movies, many of which featured John Wayne ("Cahill U.S. Marshal," "McLintock!") or James Stewart ("Shenandoah," "Rare Breed") in the lead role. 

He was not on the list.

Celebrated film director and longtime San Juan Island resident Andrew McLaglen died Saturday, Aug. 30, at his Friday Harbor home.

He was 94.

The son of former professional boxer and Academy Award-winning British actor Victor McLaglen (“The Informer,” 1935) and Enid Lamont, MaLaglen was born July 28, 1920, in England, and later raised in Southern California, and Hollywood, where the McLaglens relocated from England shortly after his birth.

Born into a theatrical family with a rich cinematic history, McLaglen became a film industry luminary in his own right, directing 28 full-length feature films, largely Western and action-adventure movies, many of which featured John Wayne (“Cahill U.S. Marshal,” “McLintock!”) or James Stewart (“Shenandoah,” “Rare Breed”) in the lead role.

He earned accolades as a television director as well, directing countless episodes of many of the most popular television series of his day, including seven episodes of Perry Mason, six episodes of Rawhide and 96 episodes of Gunsmoke.

Beginning in 1956, with “Man in a Vault,” MaLaglen’s career as a film and television director spanned more than three decades. He directed his last major motion picture, “Return from the River Kwai,” in 1989.

Following retirement from the Hollywood film industry, McLaglen relocated to San Juan Island, where he became a year-round resident, outspoken supporter of the performing arts and would frequently lend his expertise at San Juan Community Theatre, including directing the memorable 2008 production of Neil Simon’s “The Odd Couple.”

Many milestones and highlights of McLaglen’s illustrious career behind the camera are on display in San Juan Island sole movie house, The Palace Theater, which has long maintained a “Wall of Fame” in its foyer in his honor, featuring on-location and candid photographs, movie billboards and a host of cinematic memorabilia.

Films directed

 

Gun the Man Down — Batjac film (1956)

Man in the Vault — Batjac Film (1956)

The Abductors (1957)

Freckles (1960)

The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come (1961)

McLintock! — With John Wayne (1963)

Shenandoah With James Stewart (1965)

The Rare Breed With James Stewart (1966)

Monkeys, Go Home! (1967)

The Way West (1967)

The Ballad of Josie (1967)

The Devil's Brigade (1968)

Bandolero! With James Stewart (1968)

Hellfighters — With John Wayne (1968)

The Undefeated — With John Wayne (1969)

Chisum — With John Wayne (1970)

One More Train to Rob (1971)

Fools' Parade With James Stewart (1971)

Something Big (1971)

Cahill U.S. Marshal — With John Wayne (1973)

The Log of the Black Pearl — TV movie (1975)

Stowaway to the Moon — TV movie (1975)

Mitchell (1975)

The Last Hard Men (1976)

Banjo Hackett: Roamin’ Free - TV movie (1976)

Royce — TV movie (1976)

Murder at the World Series — TV movie (1977)

Trail of Danger — TV movie (1978)

The Wild Geese (1978)

North Sea Hijack (1979)

Breakthrough (1979)

The Sea Wolves (1980)

The Shadow Riders — TV movie (1982)

Sahara (1983)

Travis McGee (film) — TV movie (1983)

The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission — TV movie (1985)

On Wings of Eagles — TV miniseries (1986)

Return from the River Kwai (1989)

Eye of the Widow (1991)

 

Television directed

Gunsmoke — 96 episodes (1956–1965)

Have Gun – Will Travel — 116 episodes (1957–1963)

Perry Mason — 7 episodes — (1958–1960)

Rawhide — 6 episodes (1959–1962)

Gunslinger — 5 episodes (1961)

The Virginian — episode — Smile of a Dragon (1964)

Wagon Train — episode — The Silver Lady (1965)

The Wonderful World of Disney — 5 episodes (1970–1978)

Banacek — episode — The Three Million Dollar Piracy (1973)

Amy Prentiss — episode — The Desperate World of Jane Doe (1974)

Hec Ramsey — episode — Scar Tissue (1974)

Banacek — episode — Rocket to Oblivion (1974)

The Blue and the Gray — episodes — Chapter One Parts 1–3 (1982)

 

Miscellaneous contributions

Dakota — production assistant (uncredited) (1945)

Bullfighter and the Lady — assistant director (1951)

Big Jim McLain — assistant director (1952)

The Quiet Man — 2nd Assistant Director (uncredited) (1952)

Hondo — unit production manager (1953)

Plunder of the Sun — assistant director (1953)

This Is Your Life — episode — Victor McLaglen — himself (1953)

Island in the Sky — assistant director (1953)

Kansas Pacific — assistant director (1953)

The High and the Mighty — assistant director (1954)

Track of the Cat — assistant director (1954)

Blood Alley — assistant director (1955)

Seven Men From Now — Producer (1956)

This Is Your Life — episode — Ken Curtis — himself (1972)

The Hollywood Greats — episode — John Wayne — himself (1984)

The Making of "The Quiet Man" — Video documentary short — himself (1992)

The Quiet Man: The Joy of Ireland — Video Documentary Short — himself (2002)

American Masters — episode — John Ford/John Wayne: The Filmmaker and the Legend — himself (2006)

100 Years of John Wayne — TV Movie documentary short — himself (2007)

Glenn Cornick obit

Glenn Cornick, Original Jethro Tull Bassist, Dead at 67

The bassist appeared on the prog-rockers' first three LPs before leaving band in 1970 

He was not on the list.

GLENN CORNICK, THE original bassist for Jethro Tull, passed away August 29 at his home in Hilo, Hawaii. He was 67. Billboard reports that Cornick died of congestive heart failure and had been receiving hospice care recently. Cornick was a founding member of Jethro Tull, appearing on their first three albums before departing the group in 1970.

“It is with great sadness that we learned today of the passing of Glenn Cornick, bass player with Jethro Tull from the band’s inception 1968 until 1970,” Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson wrote in his tribute to Cornick on the band’s official website. “Glenn was a man of great bonhomie and ready to befriend anyone – especially fellow musicians. Always cheerful, he brought to the early stage performances of Tull a lively bravado both as a personality and a musician… During the many years since then, Glenn continued to play in various bands and was a frequent guest at Tull fan conventions where he would join in with gusto to rekindle the musical moments of the early repertoire.”

While Jethro Tull’s revolving door lineups have boasted over 25 members, Cornick was one of the most memorable and impactful. Cornick’s tenure with the group started back when they were known as the John Evan Band in the mid-Sixties. That group eventually transformed into the Anderson-led Jethro Tull, with Cornick working on that band’s 1968 debut This Was, 1969’s Stand Up, and 1970’s Benefit and contributing the memorable bass lines to fan favorite tracks like “A Song for Jeffrey” and “Teacher.” The bassist is also seen alongside Anderson – and guitarist Tony Iommi, making his lone Tull appearance – in the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus film.

After parting ways with Jethro Tull during the rehearsals that eventually turned into Aqualung, Cornick started his own group called Wild Turkey. He’d later join the band Paris, a project spearheaded by former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Welch. Cornick was also a regular at Jethro Tull fan conventions and occasionally performed with Tull tribute bands.

Rosella Towne obit

Rosella Towne (Jan 20 1918 – Aug 29 2014)

She was not on the list.

Rosella Towne, the actress who appeared in numerous Warner Bros films opposite Ronald Reagan, has died aged 96 on August 29th 2014.

Her death was confirmed to me by her son, Anthony, via email:

“A message was forwarded to me from the Whitney Center in Hamden, Connecticut, where my mother Rosella Townsend (Kronman) resided until her death at the end of August of this year. She was 96, and had had a happy and healthy life. Thanks for your inquiry”

Rosella appeared opposite the future President of the United States in films such as Sergeant Murphy (1938), Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938), Secret Service of the Air (1939),  Code of the Secret Service (1939).

Her most famous role is that of Jane Arden, in the 1939 Warner Bros film The Adventures of Jane Arden, where she investigates the smuggling of jewels.

The character of Jane Arden, a reporter seeking to expose criminal activity, was created by writer Monte Barrett and artist Frank Ellis for the Register and Tribune Syndicate.   It became an international syndicated comic strip from 1927 to 1968.

In 1942 Rosella married Harry Kronman, a screenwriter who would pen episodes of The Rifleman (1959-1961),  The Untouchables (1960-1963),  The Fugitive (1963-1967), The Virginian (1963-1970) and Gunsmoke (1965-1973).

She retired from acting upon her marriage to Harry.

She is survived by two sons, Anthony and Michael, five grandchildren, Matthew, Cole, Emma, Hope and Alexander, and two great grandchildren, Sabine and Eleni.

Filmography

    Varsity Show (1937) as passerby

    It's Love I'm After (1937) as autograph seeker

    Submarine D-1 (1937) as Mary

    Expensive Husbands (1937) as Brenner's receptionist

    Hollywood Hotel (1937) as secretary

    Sergeant Murphy (1938) as Alice Valentine

    The Patient in Room 18 (1938) as Maida Day

    Blondes at Work (1938) as Louisa Revelle

    Fools for Scandal (1938) as Diana

    Gold Diggers in Paris (1938) as golddigger

    Men Are Such Fools (1938) as Linda's secretary

    Cowboy from Brooklyn (1938) as Panthea Landis

    Sons of the Plains (short) (1938)

    Boy Meets Girl (1938) as hospital nurse

    Secrets of an Actress (1938) as seated party guest

    Campus Cinderella (short) (1938) as co-ed

    The Sisters (1938) as telephone operator

    Hard to Get (1938) Miss Gray

    Declaration of Independence (1938) as Betsy Kramer

    Going Places (1938) as young lady at party

    Yes, My Darling Daughter (1939) as Edith Colby

    Secret Service of the Air (1939) as Zelma Warren

    The Adventures of Jane Arden (1939) as Jane Arden

    Women in the Wind (1939) as Phyllis

    Dark Victory (1939) as girl in box

    Code of the Secret Service (1939) as Elaine

    The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939) as lady of the court

    Flight Angels (1940) as student

    Rocky Mountain Rangers (1940) as Doris Manners

    No, No, Nanette (1940) as stewardess

    The Hard-Boiled Canary (1941) as girl

    A Gentle Gangster (1943) as Helen Barton