Marshall Efron obit

Marshall Efron, Funny Cog in the PBS ‘Dream Machine,’ Dies at 81

In the 1970s he was part of a much-talked about prime-time TV series as well as a somewhat subversive Sunday morning Bible show for children. 

He was not on the list.

Efron as an actor and humorist originally known for his work on the listener-sponsored Pacifica radio stations WBAI New York and KPFK Los Angeles, and later for the PBS television show The Great American Dream Machine (the original showcase of Chevy Chase).

At WBAI, Efron was a frequent guest on Steve Post's & Bob Fass's shows, along with left-wing/counter-culture figures such as Paul Krassner. One memorable broadcast had Efron and Krassner filling in for the vacationing Steve Post, and identifying themselves as Columbia University students who had taken the station over as part of the Columbia University protests of 1968. Although regular listeners were very familiar with the voices of Krassner and Efron, many listeners were not. NYPD officers responded three different times during the broadcast in response to reports from listeners who thought the "takeover" was a legitimate event. Efron also produced features such as A Satirical View.

Marshal Efron was the author of a number of children's works such as Bible Stories You Can't Forget: No Matter How Hard You Try.

He also starred in the irregularly-scheduled Sunday-morning television program Marshall Efron's Illustrated, Simplified, and Painless Sunday School on CBS from 1973 to 1977. In this show, Efron played all of the parts, including Adam, Eve, God and the Snake in the Garden of Eden, and the Three Wise Men in the story of Christmas.

 

Born            February 3, 1938

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Died            September 30, 2019 (aged 81)

Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.

 

Filmography

 

Animated roles

 

The Kwicky Koala Show (1981) - Ratso (voice)

Smurfs (1981-1982) - Sloppy Smurf (voice)

Shirt Tales (1982) - (voice)

The Biskitts (1983) - Mooch (voice)

Kidd Video (1984-1985) - Fat Cat (voice)

The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985) - Lousy Lizard (voice)

Fluppy Dogs (1986) - Stanley (voice)

The Transformers (1986-1987) - Hun-Gurrr (2nd Head) (voice)

Snorks (1987-1988) - (voice)

Time Squad (2002) - Earl of Sandwich (voice)

 

Film roles

Funnyman (1967) - Sid, Photographer

Pound (1970) - German Shepherd

THX 1138 (1971) - TWA

Doc (1971) - Mexican Bartender

Is There Sex After Death? (1971) - Vince Domino

Dynamite Chicken (1971) - Himself

Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) - Bradley

Blade (1973) - Fat man

Baby Blue Marine (1976) - Cook

The Faking of the President (1976) - Donald Segretti

Why Me? (1978, Short) - Nesbit Spoon (voice)

California Dreaming (1979) - Ruben

Shogun Assassin (1980) - (voice)

The First Time (1983) - Nick Rand

Twice Upon a Time - Synonamess Botch (voice)

Bad Manners (1984) - Cab Driver

The Big Bang (1987) - Comrade in Chief (English version, voice)

Talking Walls (1987) - Erwin

The Road to Wellville (1994) - Bartholomew Bookbinder

Cafe Society (1995) - Moe Persky

Two Family House (2000) - Tiny

A Piece of Eden (2000) - Andres

Marie and Bruce (2004) - Ed

Home on the Range (2004) - Larry the Duck (voice)

Robots (2005) - Lamp Post / Toilet Bot / Bass Drum / Microphone (voice)

The Thing About My Folks (2005) - Tow Truck Driver

Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006) - Start Dad (voice)

Horton Hears a Who! (2008) - Wickersham Guard #1 / The Wickersham Brothers (voice)

City Island (2009) - Actor-Dog

Rob the Mob (2014) - Little Anthony (final film role)

Video game roles

The Space Bar (1997) - (voice)

Theatrical roles

Much Ado about Nothing Broadway 1972 - Singer

 

Jessye Norman obit

Jessye Norman, the International Opera Star, Dead at 74

 She was not on the list.

Jessye Norman, the renowned international opera star whose passionate soprano voice won her four Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honor, has died, according to family spokesperson Gwendolyn Quinn. She was 74.

A statement released to The Associated Press on Monday said Norman died at 7:54 a.m. EDT from septic shock and multi-organ failure secondary to complications of a spinal cord injury she suffered in 2015. She died at Mount Sinai St. Luke's Hospital in New York, and was surrounded by loved ones.

"We are so proud of Jessye's musical achievements and the inspiration that she provided to audiences around the world that will continue to be a source of joy. We are equally proud of her humanitarian endeavors addressing matters such as hunger, homelessness, youth development, and arts and culture education," the family statement read.

Funeral arrangements will be announced in the coming days.

Norman was a trailblazing performer, and one of the rare black singers to attain worldwide stardom in the opera world, performing at such revered houses like La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera, and singing title roles in works like "Carmen," ''Aida" and more. She sang the works of Wagner, but was not limited to opera or classical music, performing songs by Duke Ellington and others as well.

"I have always been drawn to things other people might consider unusual. I'm always taken by the text and beautiful melody. It's not important to me who has written it. It's just more reasonable to have an open mind about what beauty is," Norman said in a 2002 interview with the Chicago Sun-Times. "It's important for classical musicians to stretch and think beyond the three B's (Bach, Beethoven and Brahms). They were wonderful composers, but they went to the great beyond a long time ago. There's lots of music that will live for a very long time."

In that same interview she profoundly said, "Pigeonholing is only interesting to pigeons."

Norman certainly knew no boundaries or limits. She broke barriers and had hoped her industry would see more faces like hers.

"It is a more diverse place, thank goodness," Norman said of the opera world in a 2004 interview with NPR, "I wish it were even more diverse than it is."

Norman was born on September 15, 1945 in Augusta, Georgia, in segregationist times. She grew up singing in church and around a musical family that included pianists and singers. She earned a scholarship to the historically black college Howard University in Washington, D.C., to study music, and later studied at the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Michigan.

Eventually she made her operatic debut in 1969 in Berlin, wowing audiences around the world on stages in Milan, London and New York thanks to her shining vocals, no matter the language. The New York Times described her voice as "a grand mansion of sound."

"It defines an extraordinary space. It has enormous dimensions, reaching backward and upward. It opens onto unexpected vistas. It contains sunlit rooms, narrow passageways, cavernous falls," the Times' Edward Rothstein wrote.

The Met Opera called Norman "one of the great sopranos of the past half-century" in a statement.

"Starting with her Met debut as Cassandra in Berlioz's Les Troyens on Opening Night of the Met's centennial 1983-84 season, Norman sang more than 80 performances with the company, dazzling audiences with her beautiful tone, extraordinary power, and musical sensitivity," the statement read.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams said: "Farewell to the beloved Jessye Norman, a woman of vision, adventure and joy. A glorious voice and beautiful soul has winged towards Heaven. Her legacy lives on in music and the children who greet art in her name each day." And Broadway legend Audra McDonald wrote on Twitter, "UGH! Nooooooo! This is awful. I was literally supposed to spend time with her next week. RIP most magnificent amazing brilliant Diva."

In 1997, at age 52, Norman became the youngest person ever to earn the Kennedy Center Honor in the organization's 20-year history at the time. She received her National Medal of Arts from former President Barack Obama and has earned honorary doctorates from a number of prestigious schools, including Juilliard, Harvard and Yale. She is a member of British Royal Academy of Music and Georgia Music Hall of Fame. Norman even has orchid named after her in France, and the country also made her a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters.

She's earned 15 Grammy nominations throughout her illustrious career, picking up her first at the 1985 show for best classical vocal soloist performance for "Ravel: Songs Of Maurice Ravel." She earned Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

Norman also gave back, raising funds to help students attend school, championing the arts in schools and championing diversity.

"I look at symphony orchestras around this country and I want those orchestras to look more like the demographic they're meant to serve. I would like to see more African-Americans on the stage at the Metropolitan Opera here in New York. There are certainly some, but not nearly enough, and I come across so many singers who are terribly gifted and that would be an asset to these opera companies around our country. But we still have these people who are just a little bit hesitant, and perhaps not as openhearted ... as I'd like them to be," she said. "I look forward to the day when we do not think about color of skin when we're looking to have a person do a job, whatever that job is."

The Jessye Norman School of the Arts opened in 2003 in Augusta to provide a free fine arts education to disadvantaged children. The Augusta Chronicle reported that Norman was set to attend the Oct. 11 street-naming ceremony in her hometown on Eighth Street, where the school is located. It will be named Jessye Norman Boulevard.

In 1990, Augusta opened the Jessye Norman Amphitheater to honor the opera icon.

Norman released her memoir, "Stand Up Straight and Sing!," in 2004.

She is survived by two remaining siblings, James Norman and Elaine Sturkey.

Larry Willis obit

In Memoriam: Larry Willis (1942–2019)

 

He was not on the list.

Larry Willis, a consummate pianist, composer and producer, died of an aneurysm on Sept. 29 at Baltimore’s Mercy Medical Center. He was 76.

As a pianist, Willis harnessed a thick, orchestral touch. Still, he was a nimble and resourceful improviser who would draw from a deep well of influences. “The thing that really impressed me about Larry’s musicianship was that he could adapt to multiple styles of music—from hard-bop, bebop, ballad to rock. He was a master of them all,” said drummer and vibraphonist Warren Wolf, who as a Berklee College of Music student in the late-1990s first learned about Willis.

During a career that stretched across five decades, the keyboardist released more than 20 albums as a leader, including gems like 1973’s Inner Crisis (Groove Merchant), 1992’s Solo Spirit (MapleShade) and his final 2011 solo album, This Time The Dream’s On Me (HighNote). In 2015, Smoke Sessions Records released Search For Peace, a disc by the cooperative ensemble Heads Of State that featured Willis playing with bassist Buster Williams, drummer Al Foster and alto saxophonist Gary Bartz.

MapleShade Founder Pierre Sprey, who worked with Willis for more than a decade, praised him as a “born accompanist.”

“He was a very committed accompanist. He was one of those rare people who could sit in with a band that’s having a lame evening, and within the span of eight bars, Larry could generate this electricity that would just ripple across the bandstand. Then all of the sudden, the band would be cooking its ass off,” Sprey said. “That would happen without Larry doing anything showy. He just loved to make other people sound better.”

What’s interesting, though, is that jazz—and even piano—wasn’t what Willis first was smitten by.

Born Lawrence Elliott Willis in New York City on Dec. 20, 1942, he grew up in a household filled with European classical music. His older brother, Victor, was an accomplished classical pianist. Larry’s earliest music aspiration, however, was singing opera. But during his senior year at New York’s Music and Arts High School, he taught himself how to play the piano. Soon after, he played in a jazz trio with classmates—Foster and bassist Eddie Gomez.

During high school, Willis also aspired to become a professional basketball player; he even was offered a few athletic scholarships. But his passion for music triumphed, and he enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied music theory and voice. Once there, he met South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, whom he would perform and record with regularly. It was Masekela who encouraged Willis to take private piano lessons from John Mehegan to strengthen his jazz chops.

Willis progressed so quickly that before he turned 20, he was playing with pioneering alto saxophonist Jackie McLean. Several years later, the keyboardist not only performed on two of McLean’s mid-1960s Blue Note classics—Right Now! and Jacknife—he contributed a few compositions as well. Right Now! featured Willis’ stirring ballad “Poor Eric” (a tribute to Eric Dolphy) and the blistering “Christel’s Time,” while Jacknife contained his terse and episodic “High Frequency” and the snazzy soul-jazz ditty, “The Bullfrog.”

The following decade would prove to be a defining one for the keyboardist.

Willis issued his debut LP as leader, A New Kind Of Soul in 1970 on the Brunswick imprint. The album captured the avant-garde leaning soul-jazz zeitgeist of its day with a rollicking cover of James Brown’s “Lickin’ Stick” and the pensive original ballad “Someday Soon.” Although, it showcased Willis leading a small ensemble, the music sometimes exuded an orchestral sound thanks to the bandleader’s arrangements for three flugelhornists.

Willis’ continued exploring soul-jazz, funk and electric piano on his 1973 sophomore album, Inner Crisis, which today is considered a rare-groove classic among jazz fans and record collectors. In between those two dates, Willis also joined Blood, Sweat and Tears, taking over for Dick Halligan. Also during the early 1970s, Willis joined alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley’s band. And coincidentally, he joined the saxophonist’s brother, trumpeter Nat Adderley, in a group after his five-year tenure with Blood, Sweat, and Tears.

Wills persevered through the rest of the decade, but his third album, My Funny Valentine (Jazz City) wasn’t released until 1988. It was his tenure with trumpeter and conguero Jerry González’s groundbreaking Latin jazz ensemble, Fort Apache Band, that really helped rejuvenate Willis’ career. The keyboardist made his debut with the combo on the 1993 disc Earth Dance (Sunnyside) and would go on to record an additional four discs with the troupe.

“Larry brought an energetic approach to the music each and every time,” said saxophonist Joe Ford, who was also a longtime member of the Fort Apache Band. “Nobody in Latin music comped on the piano like Larry. He was a lot more rhythmic, because he was locked in that rhythm section with drummer Steve Berrios, bassist Andy Gonzalez, and Jerry on congas.”

In the early-1990s, Willis also developed a fruitful relationship with MapleShade as a solo artist and recorded some splendid avant-garde duet discs with the likes of baritone saxophonist Hamiett Bluiett and drummer Paul Murphy; Willis also became the label’s de facto music director and producer. Trumpeter Roy Hargrove then recruited Willis for his 1995 disc, Family, and 2000’s ballad-heavy Moment To Moment. The 2000s found the keyboardist migrating to the HighNote imprint for a string of records as well. And in 2012, he received Howard University’s Benny Golson Jazz Master Award.

Toward the end of his life, Willis settled in Baltimore, where he continued playing with jazz musicians who spanned multiple generations.

“Mentorship is the best thing that describes him,” said Wolf. “He was all about playing with the younger generation and giving them a chance to succeed in this music. In Baltimore, there’s a lot of young musicians who need guidance. To have a legend like Larry living in the heart of the city was such a huge, positive thing. You could learn a lot just being around someone like him.”

Alexander Davion obit

  French Actor Alexander Davion Has Died

He was not on the list.

Davion was a French-born British actor. He was perhaps best known in the UK for his starring role in Gideon's Way as Detective Chief Inspector David Keen. He was born in Paris, France. He died in London, England at the age of 90.

 

Filmography

Film roles

1951: Captain Horatio Hornblower - Spanish Officer (uncredited)

1954: The Good Die Young - Young Man (uncredited)

1955: Richard III - Messenger to Richard

1960: Song Without End - Chopin

1963: Paranoiac - Tony Ashby

1964: Blind Corner - Ricky

1964: Rattle of a Simple Man - Ricardo

1966: Plague of the Zombies - Harry Denver

1966: Thunderbirds Are GO - Space Captain Greg Martin (voice)

1967: Valley of the Dolls - Ted Casablanca

1969: The Royal Hunt of the Sun - De Nizza

1971: Incense for the Damned - Tony Seymour

1971: Clinic Exclusive - Lee Maitland

1982: Dark Echoes - Dereck Stanhope

1986: Whoops Apocalypse [5] - Maguadoran General

Television roles

1959: Perry Mason (Episode: "The Case of the Wayward Wife") - Gilbert Ames

1962: Combat! (Episode: "Any Second Now", season 1, episode 4)

1964-1966: Gideon's Way (26 episodes) - David Keen[2]

1966: The Man Who Never Was - Roger Barry

1967: Custer - Capt Marcus A Reno

1970: UFO (Episode: The Psychobombs) - the executive

1977: Van der Valk (Episode: Diane) - as a man who is murdered at the start of the episode

1982: The Professionals (Episode: Operation Susie) - Torres

1984: Arch of Triumph (TV Movie) - Alex

Hogan Sheffer obit

 

RIP: Soap Opera Head Writer Hogan Sheffer Dead at 61

 

He was not on the list.

Noted soap opera head writer Hogan Sheffer has died. The former head writer of As the World Turns, Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless passed away September, according to SoapHub.

Sheffer took over as head writer at As the World Turns in 2000 and continued there through 2005. During his era at the Proctor & Gamble produced CBS soap opera ATWT won Outstanding Drama Series in 2001 and 2004. Sheffer and his writing team won Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2005.

In 2006 Sheffer took over at Days of Our Lives as head writer with Meg Kelly. His writing continued through January, 2008.

In May of that same year Sheffer joined The Young and the Restless as co-head writer with Maria Arena Bell and Scott Hamner. Y&R won the Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team in 2011.  His time at Y&R ended in late 2012.

Hogan Sheffer, an Emmy Award-winning daytime television writer known for his comical one-liners, died in his hometown of York, Pennsylvania on September 28. He was 61.

Sheffer went into cardiac arrest in 2014, and suffered a series of health problems up until his death last week from heart failure.

The veteran writer’s longtime manager, Brad Kramer, told Deadline Sheffer had a “huge heart” and always helped others.

“I met Hogan in 1993. I know I am speaking for countless others when I say Hogan Sheffer will be dearly missed,” Kramer said. “Besides a brilliant creative mind, and the most generous huge heart, Hogan could always and did make you laugh until you were in tears. He would and did do anything to help others.”

Sheffer started out in the industry in the 1980s and worked at DreamWorks as director of screenplay development from 1997 to 2000, under producers Mark Johnson and Elizabeth Cantillon. He was in charge of developing screenplays for films such as My Dog Skip, Galaxy Quest, Home Fries, and What Lies Beneath.

He would later make the transition to daytime TV on As the World Turns, The Young and the Restless, and Days of Our Lives.

While Sheffer loved writing and developing feature films, he thrived on the intensity and year-round schedule of daytime TV, Kramer said.

Sheffer served as head writer on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns. He led his team to four Emmys for Outstanding Drama Series Writing Team on the program in 2001, 2002, 2004, and 2005.

He was also head writer on NBC’s Days of Our Lives from 2006 to 2007, and co-head writer on CBS’ Y&R for several years.

Writer

Eileen Davidson, Bryton James, Joshua Morrow, Gina Tognoni, Justin Hartley, Melissa Claire Egan, and Peter Bergman in The Young and the Restless (1973)

The Young and the Restless

TV Series

co-head writer

associate head writer

2008–2013

1063 episodes

 

Days of Our Lives (1965)

Days of Our Lives

5.2

TV Series

writer

head writer

2006–2008

235 episodes

As the World Turns (1956

As the World Turns

6.2

TV Series

associate head writer

writer

head writer ...

2000–2006

297 episodes

Gene Melchiorre obit

Bradley legend Gene 'Squeaky' Melchiorre dies at 92

 

He was not on the list.

Perhaps the most renowned Bradley basketball player of all time passed away Friday morning.

Gene “Squeaky” Melchiorre, the only No. 1 NBA draft choice to never play in the league, died at his Highland Park home at the age of 92.

The two-time all-American who led Bradley to the championship games of both the NCAA and NIT tournaments in 1950 will be more remembered in Bradley lore for his involvement with several teammates in the widespread college basketball point-shaving scandal that rocked the sport following that season.

“The memories are good and the memories are bad,” said Paul Unruh, his Bradley teammate. “It’s one of those things with two sides to it — a wonderful side and a terrible side.”

We send our condolences to the family of Bradley Hall of Famer Gene Melchiorre, who passed away this morning. A two-time All-American, Melchiorre is still 12th all-time in scoring at BU with 1,608 career points.pic.twitter.com/lc3UR0F2CI

— Bradley Braves (@BradleyBraves)September 27, 2019

Although Unruh and Melchiorre never spoke again after the scandal, Unruh looks back fondly on the time he spent at BU playing with the 5-foot-8 wizard with the basketball.

“He’d drive into the middle, and it was unbelievable how he could manage his body and get a shot off,” Unruh said. “I treasure the time I had to play with a guy like that. We lost an original. There was nobody else like him.”

Said another Melchiorre teammate, Joe Stowell, who went on to coach the Braves: "I learned so much on how to guard the post just by trying to guard Squeaky in practice that I taught my big men later. He was so good inside. We played Western Kentucky, and they had three big guys who were 6-7, 6-9 and 6-11. And Squeaky fouled ‘em all out."

In an interview with Look Magazine in 1953, Melchiorre admitted to taking bribes from gamblers. But he denied trying to manipulate the point spread.

“Why did we do it?” Melchiorre said in the 1953 article. “Well, none of us had any money. We justified ourselves, I guess, by saying the colleges were making plenty out of us. We argued to ourselves that what we were doing was wrong, but not too wrong, because we weren’t going to throw any games.”

Soon after being chosen first by the Baltimore Bullets in the 1951 NBA draft, Melchiorre was banned for life by the league for his role in the scandal.

“It's not disappointing at all when I look back on it," he told the Journal Star in 2003. "I could understand why I couldn't play. I had to move on. I had a wife and a family."

Melchiorre moved on successfully in all areas of his life.

He and wife Kay, a Pekin native, raised five kids who produced 15 grandchildren. The couple stayed together for 62 years until Kay’s death in 2013. Gene was Kay’s loving caregiver in her final years after she became partially paralyzed following a stroke.

Gene made a good living as a small businessman in the Highland Park area, working in insurance, appliances, trucking, real estate and construction.

He stayed active playing golf and tennis and won a 45-and-under tennis doubles tournament in his 50s. He never played basketball again other than a short stint with a semi-pro team.

"My family is my greatest accomplishment," Melchiorre said in that 2003 interview. "I'm very proud of them. I've got good kids."

Melchiorre was inducted into the Bradley athletics Hall of Fame in 1979, but his No. 23 jersey was never retired. Several times over the years, Melchiorre contemporaries lobbied BU presidents to retire Melchiorre's number. But it never came to pass.

"He was truly one of a kind," Stowell said. "He was the best player on the No. 1-ranked team in the country. He made a mistake, but he was a good man. He deserved to have his number retired a long time ago."

Melchiorre and two of his teammates (Bill Mann and Mike Chinakas) pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in New York State. Though the players faced three years in prison, the assistant District Attorney praised the trio's cooperation, and they were given suspended sentences.

Melchiorre would never play a minute of NBA basketball, however. Not long after he admitted his role in the scandal, NBA President Maurice Podoloff banned all players involved in the point shaving scandal, including Melchiorre, from the NBA for life.

Rob Garrison obit

Karate Kid, Cobra Kai actor Rob Garrison dies at 59

He was not on the list.

The actor is best known for his role as Tommy in The Karate Kid movies and the YouTube series Cobra Kai.

Rob Garrison, known to fans as Tommy from The Karate Kid movies and YouTube’s sequel series Cobra Kai — died Friday morning, EW has confirmed. According to TMZ, the 59-year-old actor died at a hospital in his home state of West Virginia, where he had been receiving treatment for “ongoing kidney and liver issues.”

The actor secured a place for himself in pop culture history with his role in the 1984 hit Karate Kid. During the climactic All-Valley Karate Championship battle between underdog Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and menacing bully Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), Tommy (Garrison) encourages his Cobra Kai teammate with one of the film’s most memorable lines — “Get him a body bag! Yeah!”

After appearing in The Karate Kid and The Karate Kid Part II, Garrison went on to appear in shows including Columbo, Coach, and Homefront. In 2019, he reunited with Zabka for a season 2 episode of Cobra Kai, in which Johnny and his old Cobra Kai buddies (Ron Thomas and Tony O’Dell) spring Tommy from the hospital, where he is being treated for cancer. The group goes on a camping trip to Big Bear Lake, where Tommy passes away peacefully in his sleep. The actors “were thrilled to get the chance to put on the masks of these characters again,” exec producer Josh Heald told EW in April. “It was just another layer to this show — all of a sudden, you’re in the woods with a bunch of grown men and you’re crying.”

Rick Henriques, Garrison’s personal appearances talent agent, tells EW, “Rob was really proud of that episode.”

Garrison is survived by his brother, Patrick.

Jacques Chirac - # 218

Jacques Chirac, former French president, dead at 86

He was number 218 on the list.

Former French President Jacques Chirac, a notable critic of the Iraq War, is dead, according to multiple reports, citing family members. He was 86.


Chirac’s son-in-law Frederic Salat-Baroux confirmed his death in a statement to The Associated Press, saying he died “peacefully, among his loved one” on Thursday.


The family did not provide a cause of death, although Chirac reportedly has had health issues since leaving the presidency in 2007.


Long the standard-bearer of France's conservative right and a mayor of Paris for nearly two decades, Chirac was nicknamed "Le Bulldozer" early in his career due to his determination and ambition.

He began his two terms as president in 1995, serving as the consummate global diplomat, but failing to reform the economy or defuse tensions between police and minority youths that exploded into riots across France in 2005.

After two failed attempts, Chirac won the presidency in 1995, ending 14 years of Socialist rule. But his government quickly fell out of favor and parliamentary elections in 1997 forced him to share power with Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

The pendulum swung the other way during Chirac's re-election bid in 2002, when far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen took a surprise second place behind Chirac in first-round voting. In a rare show of unity, the moderate right and the left united behind Chirac, and he crushed le Pen with 82 percent of the vote in the runoff.


Chirac was the first French leader to acknowledge France’s role in the Holocaust and defiantly opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

While he had won a convincing mandate for his anti-crime, pro-Europe agenda at home, Chirac's outspoken opposition to the U.S.in Iraq rocked relations with France's top ally, and the clash weakened the Atlantic alliance.

Angry Americans poured Bordeaux wine into the gutter and restaurants renamed French fries "freedom fries" in retaliation.

The United States invaded anyway, yet Chirac gained international support from other war critics.


Following his presidency, Chirac was riddled with scandals, including allegations of misuse of funds and kickbacks during his time as Paris mayor.


He was formally charged in 2007 after he left office as president, losing immunity from prosecution. In 2011, he was found guilty of misuse of public money, breach of trust and illegal conflict of interest and given a two-year suspended jail sentence.


He did not attend the trial. His lawyers explained he was suffering severe memory lapses, possibly related to a stroke he suffered while still president in 2005.

Chirac is survived by his wife and younger daughter, Claude. His daughter, Laurence, died in 2016 after a long illness that Chirac once said was "the drama of my life."

Joyce Reynolds obit

Helen Joyce White Has Died 

She was not on the list.

In memory of of Helen Joyce (Reynolds) White (Los Angeles, California). Born in San Antonio, Texas in 1924 to Joel B. Reynolds and Mary Dunn, Joyce was a Warner Bros. contractor during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She gave up her career in the movies for marriage. Joyce was predeceased by her husband Arthur George White in 1980. She passed away in Los Angeles on September 24, 2019, at the age of 94, and was survived by her two children.

Helen Joyce Reynolds was born in San Antonio, Texas on October 7, 1924 to Joel B. Reynolds and Mary (Dunn) Reynolds. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles. A talent scout who saw her in a play there arranged for a screen test, which led to a film contract.

Reynolds made her acting debut with a small part in the 1942 film Yankee Doodle Dandy (she is the enthusiastic teen asking the retired George M. Cohan about his show-business background). Her roles became more substantial throughout the decade, appearing in movies such as George Washington Slept Here as Madge, The Constant Nymph as Paula Sanger, and The Adventures of Mark Twain as Clara Clemens. She had top billing in the musical comedy film Janie as Janie Conway, directed by Michael Curtiz.

In 1944, she appeared in Hollywood Canteen as herself. In 1945, Warner announced that Reynolds was retiring to resume her education, and that her contract with the studio had been abrogated. Her final leading role on the big screen came in Girls' School, a 1950 melodrama for Columbia Pictures. Her Hollywood career ended in 1950, with ten credits to her name.

On January 11, 1945, Reynolds married Lieutenant Robert Floyd Lewis of Houston, Texas, in Hollywood. They separated in early 1947. On October 24, 1947, she married Donald Michael Gallery, the adopted son of ZaSu Pitts, in Hollywood. By 1950 the couple were estranged, and the marriage ended in divorce.

 

Actress

The Bigelow Theatre (1950)

The Bigelow Theatre

6.8

TV Series

Wife

1951

1 episode

 

Julia Dean, Ross Ford, Joyce Reynolds, and Kasey Rogers in Girls' School (1950)

Girls' School

8.0

Peggy Donovan

1950

 

Robert Hutton, Janis Paige, and Joyce Reynolds in Wallflower (1948)

Wallflower

6.0

Jackie Linnett

1948

 

Robert Hutton and Joyce Reynolds in Always Together (1947)

Always Together

5.7

Jane Barker

1947

 

Hollywood Canteen (1944)

Hollywood Canteen

7.0

Joyce Reynolds

1944

 

Janie (1944)

Janie

5.9

Janie Conway

1944

 

Fredric March and Alexis Smith in The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944)

The Adventures of Mark Twain

7.1

Clara Clemens

1944

 

Sweetheart Serenade

Short

The Wife

1943

 

Humphrey Bogart, Bette Davis, Olivia de Havilland, Errol Flynn, John Garfield, Jack Carson, Eddie Cantor, Joan Leslie, Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Ann Sheridan, Dinah Shore, and Alexis Smith in Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943)

Thank Your Lucky Stars

6.8

Girl with Book (uncredited)

1943

 

Joan Fontaine, Charles Boyer, and Alexis Smith in The Constant Nymph (1943)

The Constant Nymph

6.7

Paula Sanger

1943

 

Jack Benny and Ann Sheridan in George Washington Slept Here (1942)

George Washington Slept Here

6.9

Madge

1942

 

James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Yankee Doodle Dandy

7.6

Teenager (uncredited)

1942

 

Soundtrack

James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Yankee Doodle Dandy

7.6

performer: "Jeepers Creepers" (1938) (uncredited)

1942

Robert Hunter obit

Robert Hunter, Grateful Dead Collaborator and Lyricist, Dead at 78

He was not on the list.


Robert Hunter, the poet and writer who provided the Grateful Dead with many of their vivid and enduring lyrics, died Monday night. He was 78. No cause of death was provided.

“It is with great sadness we confirm our beloved Robert passed away yesterday night,” Hunter’s family announced in a statement. “He died peacefully at home in his bed, surrounded by love. His wife Maureen was by his side holding his hand. For his fans that have loved and supported him all these years, take comfort in knowing that his words are all around us, and in that way his is never truly gone. In this time of grief please celebrate him the way you all know how, by being together and listening to the music. Let there be songs to fill the air.”

Considered one of rock’s most ambitious and dazzling lyricists, Hunter was the literary counterpoint to the band’s musical experimentation. His lyrics — heard in everything from early Dead classics like “Dark Star” and “China Cat Sunflower” and proceeding through “Uncle John’s Band,” “Box of Rain,” “Scarlet Begonias,” and “Touch of Gray”— were as much a part of the band as Jerry Garcia’s singing and guitar.

Born Robert Burns in California in 1941, Hunter met Garcia in 1961 at a local production of the musical Damn Yankees, where they were introduced by Hunter’s ex-girlfriend, and Garcia’s then-girlfriend, Diane Huntsburger. The two didn’t immediately hit it off, their friendship took root a couple nights later when they saw each other at a local coffeehouse. Just one year apart in age (Garcia was 18 and Hunter 19 at the time they met), their bond was forged partly through the shared experience of losing a father — Garcia through death, Hunter through divorce.

While Hunter and Garcia played in a few bluegrass bands together, the former passed on an offer to join Garcia’s pre-Grateful Dead jug band to focus instead on writing. At Stanford, Hunter took part in an early LSD experiment (“I had a romping good time,” he recalled) and dabbled in Scientology, but eventually he began to struggle with speed and meth, prompting him to leave the Bay Area for New Mexico. There, Hunter began writing more songs — including future Dead classics “St. Stephen,” “China Cat Sunflower” and “Alligator — which he sent to Garcia, who encouraged him to return to San Francisco and join the Dead as their lyricist.

Wally Chambers obit

Former Mount Clemens, Chicago Bears player Wally Chambers dies

He was not on the list.

Wally Chambers, the former Mount Clemens High School football player who starred for the Chicago Bears, has died. He was 68.

An administrator in the athletic department at Eastern Kentucky University, Chambers’ alma mater, confirmed the death, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Chambers died Sept. 22, the newspaper said.

He was born May 15, 1951, in Alabama.

Chambers, a 6-foot-6, 250-pound defensive tackle, played five seasons for the Bears during his seven-year NFL career. He also played two seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Bears selected Chambers at No. 8 in 1973. He started all 14 games that season and 55 of his first 56 with the team. He was a first-team All-Pro in 1976, when he unofficially recorded 14 sacks, a second-team All-Pro twice and a three-time Pro Bowl selection (1973, 1975, 1976).

In his rookie season, Chambers led the Bears in tackles with 101 and assists with 31, and he was named the NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

Chambers was named to 1972 college All-America teams selected by The Sporting News and Time magazine.

Chambers led Eastern Kentucky in tackles and assists for three straight years and was co-recipient of EKU’s Most Valuable Player Award his senior year. He was a first-team All-Ohio Valley Conference choice in 1972. His jersey No. 78 was retired by the university, and he was a member of the school's hall of fame.

A wall poster honoring Chambers was a fixture at the Mount Clemens gymnasium for many years.

He is survived by his wife, Patsy.

To celebrate the Bears' 100 years, the Chicago Tribune this summer named the team's top 100 players. Chambers was No. 52.

His notable teammates were: Bobby Douglass, Doug Buffone, Dick Butkus, Walter Payton, Bob Avellini, Mike Hartenstine, Doug Plank, Vince Evans, Dave Pear, Lee Roy Selmon, Dewey Selmon, Doug Williams, Ricky Bell, Jimmie Giles, Chuck Fusina, Dave Lewis and Greg Roberts.

He was coached by: Abe Gibron, Jack Pardee, and John McKay.

 

Carl Ruiz obit

Food Network chef Carl Ruiz remembered after "sudden" death

 

 He was not on the list.

Food Network star and New York City chef Carl Ruiz died suddenly Saturday. The 44-year-old was the executive chef of La Cubana and a star of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" and "Guy's Grocery Games."

La Cubana, which he opened in New York's Meatpacking District this past June, told CBS News it will establish The Carl Ruiz Scholarship Foundation in his honor. The restaurant added that it was "deeply saddened" by the news of his death.

"No words can fully express our sadness at the sudden loss of our dear friend and brother. Beyond his immense culinary talent, Carl's larger-than-life personality never failed to entertain, enlighten, and uplift every person he encountered along his #Ruizing adventures," La Cubana wrote in an Instagram post. "His fierce intellect and infectious humor knew no bounds."

    On behalf of the La Cubana family, with heavy hearts, we are deeply saddened to share the passing of our beloved Executive Chef Carl Ruiz. No words can fully express our sadness at the sudden loss of our dear friend and brother. Beyond his immense culinary talent, Carl's larger-than-life personality never failed to entertain, enlighten, and uplift every person he encountered along his #Ruizing adventures. His fierce intellect and infectious humor knew no bounds. He was a mighty force of down home Cuban cuisine, and lived life to the fullest, just as he cooked—with “dancing always” as the most important ingredient. Here at La Cubana, Carl paid proud tribute to his Cuban roots each night, and it is here that Carl's legacy, undeniable spirit and passion for his culture will live on. We hope we make you proud, Carlito. . To honor the work you loved so much Chef, La Cubana will continue your work in establishing The Carl Ruiz Scholarship Foundation for aspiring chefs. . We love you! You are already missed. Rest easy 🙏🏽

The New York Police Department could not confirm details of Ruiz's death. Matt Farah, who paid tribute to the chef on Instagram, claimed that Ruiz may have suffered a heart attack in his sleep.

"[Ruiz] passed peacefully in his sleep of a suspected heart attack," the internet star known for his YouTube channel "The Smoking Tire" said. "Every single time we hung out, three things happened: Carl taught me something unbelievably interesting, Carl introduced me to someone very interesting, and Carl made me laugh my f**king face off. ... I just wish I had some more time to laugh with my friend."

Ruiz documented his last few days on Instagram, posting photos of himself getting crab cakes and visiting the National Aquarium in Maryland.

Multiple celebrities shared their condolences over the weekend, including Food Network co-star Guy Fieri, who said he is "heartbroken."

"Over the years, I've met a lot of great people but a friend like Carl is one in a hundred million," Fieri wrote. "Carl 'The Cuban' Ruiz will forever live on in my heart and in those of all who loved him."

Chef Jet Tila, who starred on "Iron Chef," said he will always be "ruizing" in the late chef's honor, a term coined by Ruiz's fans for eating and drinking as much as possible at dive bars.

"You taught us how to enjoy every moment to the fullest and not live wondering what if! You are gone way too soon @carlruiz," he tweeted. "You will be remembered by us all!"

    You taught us how to enjoy every moment to the fullest and not live wondering what if! You are gone way too soon @carlruiz ! I will always be #ruizing! You will be remembered by us all! #RIP my friend. Thank you @guyfieri for bringing Carl into all of our lives. #GGG pic.twitter.com/4g3Xyfq9kH

    — Jet Tila (@jettila) September 22, 2019