Doris Merrick obit

 Actress Doris Merrick Dies at Age 100

She was not on the list.

Merrick was born in June 1919, to Joseph Simpson and Nellie Weber, and had five brothers and four sisters. She attended Hyde Park High School and worked as a singer with her sisters, before becoming a soloist at NBC, she subsequently worked as a model before signing a contract with Warner Bros. in 1941.

She was first given the name Beth Drake but changed to Doris Merrick not long after. After appearing in an uncredited role in Yankee Doodle Dandy, starring James Cagney, in 1941, she made her star film debut the following year in Girl Trouble. While a couple of her roles went uncredited she had a notable supporting role in the Laurel and Hardy comedy The Big Noise (1944).

 She appeared in the magazine Yank, the Army Weekly during the WWII years and her professional acting career ended in 1955. She was married to boxer Max Marek from 1936 to 1944, before being married to rancher and lumberman John Meagher Knoll from 1946 to 1962. Merrick lived in the Golden Valley Estates Assisted Living Centre in Yuma, Arizona and was going under her married name of Doris Hatfield. Merrick turned 100 in June 2019 and died in November.

 

Actress

Interrupted Melody (1955)

Interrupted Melody

6.7

Nurse (uncredited)

1955

 

Beverly Garland and Joyce Terry in The Neanderthal Man (1953)

The Neanderthal Man

4.4

Ruth Marshall

1953

 

Bill Williams in The Adventures of Kit Carson (1951)

The Adventures of Kit Carson

6.9

TV Series

Sue Banyon

Betty Denton

Lori Barker

1952

3 episodes

 

Death Valley Days (1952)

Death Valley Days

7.5

TV Series

Clem Barry

1952

1 episode

 

Mark Stevens in Big Town (1950)

Big Town

7.6

TV Series

Peggy Colter

1952

1 episode

 

Untamed Women (1952)

Untamed Women

3.6

Sandra

1952

 

Duncan Renaldo in The Cisco Kid (1950)

The Cisco Kid

7.1

TV Series

Anita Hardy

Madame Lil

1951–1952

2 episodes

 

Kent Taylor in Boston Blackie (1951)

Front Page Detective

6.2

TV Series

Letty Tyson

1951

1 episode

 

Bill Edwards in The Fighting Stallion (1950)

The Fighting Stallion

5.1

Jeanne Barton

1950

 

Lon Chaney Jr., Hugh Beaumont, Doris Merrick, and John Sutton in The Counterfeiters (1948)

The Counterfeiters

5.7

Margo Talbot

1948

 

Warren Douglas and Lynne Roberts in The Pilgrim Lady (1947)

The Pilgrim Lady

5.7

Millicent Rankin

1947

 

Madge Meredith, Sharyn Moffett, and Regis Toomey in Child of Divorce (1946)

Child of Divorce

6.5

Louise Norman

1946

 

Fortunio Bonanova, Judy Canova, and Ross Hunter in Hit the Hay (1945)

Hit the Hay

6.2

Sally Mansfield

1945

 

Claude Rains, Charles Korvin, and Merle Oberon in This Love of Ours (1945)

This Love of Ours

5.7

Vivian

1945

 

Robert Lowery, Doris Merrick, Nestor Paiva, and Eddie Quillan in Sensation Hunters (1945)

Sensation Hunters

5.4

Julie Rogers

1945

 

Jeanne Crain, Frank Latimore, Mary Nash, and Eugene Pallette in In the Meantime, Darling (1944)

In the Meantime, Darling

5.5

Mrs. MacAndrews

1944

 

Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, and Doris Merrick in The Big Noise (1944)

The Big Noise

6.3

Evelyn

1944

 

Anthony Quinn, Trudy Marshall, Doris Merrick, Robin Raymond, and Sheila Ryan in Ladies of Washington (1944)

Ladies of Washington

6.4

Susan

1944

 

Gene Tierney, Don Ameche, Charles Coburn, Laird Cregar, and Marjorie Main in Heaven Can Wait (1943)

Heaven Can Wait

7.4

Nellie Brown - Registered Nurse (uncredited)

1943

 

Paul Guilfoyle, Doris Merrick, and Lloyd Nolan in Time to Kill (1942)

Time to Kill

6.4

Linda Conquest Murdock

1942

 

That Other Woman (1942)

That Other Woman

6.2

Irene (uncredited)

1942

 

Don Ameche and Joan Bennett in Girl Trouble (1942)

Girl Trouble

6.8

Susan

1942

 

James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

Yankee Doodle Dandy

7.6

Dancer (uncredited)

1942

Yasuhiro Nakasone obit

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone dies at 101 - NHK

He was not on the list.


Yasuhiro Nakasone, one of Japan’s longest reigning premiers and known for his friendship with Ronald Reagan, has died at the age of 101, a top ruling party official said on Friday.


Nakasone, prime minister from 1982 to 1987, hobnobbed on the world stage with Reagan and Margaret Thatcher while battling with bureaucrats over domestic reforms.

He himself said he failed to achieve a dream of revising the country’s pacifist, post-war constitution to clarify the ambiguous status of the military.

“Revising the constitution takes time. I stressed to the public that it was necessary, but it was not possible to begin the revision quickly,” the straight-talking Nakasone told Reuters in an interview in January 2010.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made loosening the limits of the U.S.-drafted constitution a key goal but revising the charter’s pacifist Article Nine remains contentious.

Known for his “Ron and Yasu” friendship with Reagan, Nakasone made headlines after taking office when he said that in event of a war, he would make Japan an unsinkable “aircraft carrier” for U.S. forces and bottle up the Soviet navy. Nakasone also broke an unwritten rule on limiting the annual defense budget to 1% of gross national product.

In 1983, he became the first Japanese premier to officially visit South Korea, mending fences with a country that Japan had brutally colonized from 1910 to 1945.

Nakasone, a former lieutenant in the Imperial Navy who lost his younger brother in World War Two, outraged Asian countries when he made an official visit to Tokyo’s Yasukuni shrine, where convicted war criminals are honored along with Japan’s war dead, on the 40th anniversary of Japan’s surrender.

He decided not to repeat the pilgrimage after it sparked riots in China.

Nakasone, like Abe, was a security hawk but did not adopt a revisionist view of Japan’s wartime legacy.

“The big difference is that Nakasone lived through” the war, said Andrew Horvat, a visiting professor at Josai International University. “He didn’t try to minimize the impact of the war ... and was not insensitive to the feelings of neighboring countries.”

In a 1978 memoir, Nakasone recalled setting up a “comfort station” - a euphemism for a military brothel - on the island of Borneo during the war, although he later denied personal knowledge of the facility.


Abe, for his part, has stuck by a 1994 government apology to “comfort women”, but has denied there is direct evidence of widespread coercion by the military.

The issue remains a major source of friction in Tokyo’s relations with Seoul, since many of the women were Korean.

Nakasone’s outspoken ways sometimes caused problems.

In 1986 he offended blacks, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans living in the United States by saying they brought the average intelligence level of Americans below that of Japan.

Nakasone pursued domestic reforms aggressively, privatizing Japan’s state-run railway, tobacco and telecommunications monopolies. Critics say, however, that he failed to implement a landmark set of reform proposals to help Japan’s economy grow.

Nakasone won a rare fifth year in office after leading his Liberal Democratic Party to a landslide victory in 1986 elections. But his career was shadowed by links to a huge political scandal, a stocks-for-favors scam.

He quit the LDP in 1989 over the scandal but two years later was welcomed back as a senior adviser. He retired in 2003.

Born in the hilly district of Takasaki, northwest of Tokyo, on May 27, 1918, to a wealthy timber trader, Nakasone graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University, later the Tokyo University, before entering the Home Ministry in 1941.

He joined the Tokyo Police Department after Japan’s surrender in 1945. Nakasone has two daughters and a politician son, Hirofumi.

William D. Ruckelshaus obit

William Ruckelshaus, Who Defied Nixon In 'Saturday Night Massacre,' Dies At 87

He was not on the list.



William D. Ruckelshaus, the nation's first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and a former deputy attorney general who was perhaps best known for defying President Nixon during the Watergate scandal, has died at the age of 87 at his home in Medina, Wash.

A moderate Republican, Ruckelshaus was an Ivy League-trained lawyer from Indianapolis who, in 1969, joined the Nixon administration as head of the Justice Department's civil division. In late 1970, he became the first administrator of the new Environmental Protection Agency where he oversaw the implementation of the Clean Air Act and the banning of the pesticide DDT.

With a record and reputation as a pragmatic political trouble-shooter known as "Mr. Clean," Ruckelshaus was tapped as acting FBI director and then deputy attorney general during the early stages of the Watergate scandal. Within months of his arrival at the Justice Department, he would become embroiled in one of the most controversial events in the scandal over the White House-orchestrated break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate Hotel.

As the investigation into the alleged cover-up of the break-in intensified, Nixon ordered then-Attorney General Eliot Richardson and Ruckelshaus to fire the independent special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. They both refused and instead resigned. That episode in October 1973 came to be known as the "Saturday Night Massacre" and it led to the eventual downfall of the Nixon presidency a year later.

Ruckelshaus left Washington, D.C., and moved to Seattle in 1976. He was a senior vice president for the lumber giant Weyerhauser when he returned to lead the EPA under President Reagan in 1983. He is widely credited with re-energizing the demoralized and scandal-ridden agency before leaving at the beginning of Reagan's second term in early 1985.

From 1988 to 1995, Ruckelshaus was chairman and CEO of Browning Ferris Industries (BFI), a large garbage-removal company. Under his leadership, BFI moved into the New York market where it helped break up the Mafia's role in the trash removal business.

A noted conservationist, Ruckelshaus led the Puget Sound Partnership from 2007 to 2010. More recently, he has been critical of President Trump's environmental policies.

As The Associated Press reports,


"In recent years, Ruckelshaus joined other former EPA directors in championing the agency against cuts or efforts to curtail its authority. In an interview with The Associated Press last year, his criticism of President Donald Trump's moves to roll back environmental protections and give more regulatory power to the states was withering.

"He said some states don't have the resources to police big polluters, and others lack the will.

"'The reason that the ultimate authority to enforce the law was put into federal hands was because the states weren't any good at it,'" Ruckelshaus said. "The idea that you're going to delegate it to the states ... is completely fraudulent.' "

Ruckelshaus was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in November 2015.

Seymour Siwoff obit

Stats maven Seymour Siwoff dead at 99

 

He was not on the list.

Siwoff was born in Brooklyn on November 1, 1920. His sister was television director and producer Lela Swift. In 1943, he graduated from St. John's University with a degree in accounting and then served during World War II in the 88th Infantry Division where he was hit by shrapnel in Italy. He worked as an accountant after the war and in 1948 took a position with the Elias Sports Bureau, the official statistician of the National League, where he had interned during college. In 1952, he purchased the Bureau from the widows of Al Munro Elias and Walter Bruce Elias, who founded the company in 1913. Under Siwoff, the company was known for providing more obscure facts (day/night games, performance against left/right-handed pitchers, home/away, and with runners in scoring position), foreshadowing the modern era's advanced statistics. In 1980, the Elias Sports Bureau became the official statistician of the American League, replacing the Sports Information Center. Siwoff expanded the company into providing statistical support to the NFL, NBA, WNBA, Major League Soccer, and various television and radio networks.

He was the president and chief executive of the Elias Sports Bureau from 1952 to 2019. He was named a finalist for the 2020 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a contributor, however he was not elected.

He was married to Gertrude Schatzberg (1921–2018); they had two children, Nancy Siwoff Gilston and Ronald Siwoff.

Tiny Ron Taylor obit

 

Ronald "Tiny Ron" Taylor had died

He was not on the list.

Seven-foot-tall screen actor Ronald "Tiny Ron" Taylor, a resident of Santa Clarita, died November 28, 2019. He was 72. Taylor battled cancer the last few years and had been in and out of the hospital locally.

Taylor was born November 21, 1947, in Torrance. After North Torrance High School, he graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in business and was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics in the second round of the 1969 NBA draft (third pick, 18th overall). He never played in the NBA; instead he played in the American Basketball Association from 1969 to 1972 and then in Vienna, Austria, before returning to launch an acting career. 

He played for four teams from 1969 to 1972: the New York Nets and Washington Caps (1969–70); the Virginia Squires (1970–71); and the Pittsburgh Condors (1971–72). He played 75 of his 77 career games in his first season, 72 of them for the Nets. He scored 371 total points (4.8 ppg), 294 total rebounds (3.8 rpg), and 68 assists (0.9 apg). He also played some basketball in Austria before deciding to be an actor. 

Taylor took the ironic name "Tiny Ron" when he applied to join the Screen Actors Guild because there was already another SAG member named Ron Taylor. His first known acting work came in 1982 on the comedic television series "Police Squad!" where he played the recurring character Al, who is so tall that his face is never seen.

Tiny Ron is perhaps best recognized as Lothar in "The Rocketeer" (1991), as Roc in "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" (1994) and as Jacko the Giant in "Last Man Standing" (1996), which was filmed at Melody Ranch in Placerita Canyon. From 1993-1999 he had a recurring role as the Hupyrian servant Maihar'du on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

Married in 2015, he was still working as an actor until 2016 when he was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

Funeral services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, December 21, 2019, followed by a reception from 2-4 p.m. at Eternal Valley Memorial Park, 23287 N. Sierra Highway in Newhall. 

Filmography

Police Squad! (1982, TV Series) - Al (uncredited)

Seven Hours to Judgment (1988) - Ira Martin

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988) - Al

Road House (1989) - Mountain

The Rocketeer (1991) - Lothar / Good Old Boy

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994) - Roc

Last Man Standing (1996) - Jacko the Giant

Zigs (2001) - Terry

Six: The Mark Unleashed (2004) - Eddie

Sasquatch Mountain (2006) - Sasquatch

Holyman Undercover (2010) - Himself

Brother White (2012) - Himself

The Book of Esther (2013) - Nasir

Dancer and the Dame (2015) - Martin

 

Gene Warren Jr. obit

 Special Effects Master Gene Warren Jr. Has died

He was not on the list.

Gene Warren, Jr. was born and raised in Hollywood, California. Making his own way in the film industry, his special effects company, Fantasy II Film Effects, garnered him many awards including an Oscar for his contributions in the movie, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, co-won with Dennis Muren, Stan Winston and Robert Skotak.

He taught film study at USC, wrote novels, screenplays and lived in the Hollywood Hills with his cat, Gris.

Warren was born on July 22, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is known for his work on Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), The Expendables (2010) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). He died on November 28, 2019 in Los Angeles.

SYFY WIRE has confirmed that he died on Thanksgiving night at his Hollywood Knolls home in California surrounded by his brother and two sons.

"Gene gave me my big break in Hollywood when he asked me to set up a creature effects department at Fantasy II," wrote Bart J. Mixon, founder of the creature effects department at Warren's SFX company, on Facebook. "If there's a game of darts in the afterlife, Gene will be there!"

"Gene Warren Jr. was an incredible mentor and friend," added Edward Chiodo, one of the siblings behind 1988's Killer Klowns From Outer Space. "Gene was always there with advice and support. Delivering above and beyond the request with amazing Hollywood stories along the way. A true professional who championed all the right things when it came to workers' rights and social causes. They don’t make them like him anymore."

He was the son Gene Warren Sr., an accomplished special effects designer in his own right, who served as a production designer and second unit director, and worked on such classics as the Land of the Lost TV series and George Pal's 1960 adaptation of The Time Machine, which nabbed him an Oscar as well. He passed away from cancer in 1997.

Visual effects (70 credits)

 2017 Titanic: 20 Years Later with James Cameron (TV Movie documentary) (sinking model rigging)

 2013 Sleepy Hollow (TV Series) (visual effects producer - 1 episode)

- The Sin Eater (2013) ... (visual effects producer)

 2012 Moonrise Kingdom (visual effects supervisor)

 2010 The Expendables (visual effects producer: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 2009 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (effects supervisor: VFX photography unit)

 2006 Underworld: Evolution (miniature effects supervisor - as Gene Warren II)

 2004 The Punisher (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 2003 Underworld (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 2003 The Core (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II)

 2002 Vampires: Los Muertos (visual effects supervisor)

 2002 The Mothman Prophecies (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II)

 2000 The 6th Day (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 2000 Men of Honor (visual effects consultant)

 2000 Scream 3 (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1999 Y2K (TV Movie) (visual effects supervisor)

 1999 Atomic Train (TV Mini Series) (visual effects supervisor - 2 episodes)

- Part 2 (1999) ... (visual effects supervisor)

- Part 1 (1999) ... (visual effects supervisor)

 1999 Orfeu (special visual effects)

 1999 Arlington Road (visual effects supervisor)

 1997 House of Frankenstein (TV Mini Series) (visual effects supervisor - 2 episodes)

- Episode #1.2 (1997) ... (visual effects supervisor)

- Episode #1.1 (1997) ... (visual effects supervisor)

 1997 George Wallace (TV Mini Series) (visual effects supervisor)

 1997 Snow White: A Tale of Terror (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1997 The Second Civil War (TV Movie) (visual effects supervisor)

 1996 The Cold Equations (TV Movie) (visual effects supervisor)

 1996 The Crow: City of Angels (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1996 The Beast (TV Mini Series) (visual effects supervisor - 2 episodes)

- Episode #1.2 (1996) ... (visual effects supervisor)

- Episode #1.1 (1996) ... (visual effects supervisor)

 1996 Andersonville (TV Mini Series) (visual effects supervisor)

 1996 Eden (visual effects supervisor)

 1995 Strange Days (special effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1995 Lord of Illusions (visual effects supervisor)

 1995 Magic in the Water (visual effects: Fantasy II) / (visual special effects supervisor)

 1995 Johnny Mnemonic (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1995 The Brady Bunch Movie (visual effects supervisor)

 1994 Witch Hunt (TV Movie) (visual effects supervisor)

 1994 The Burning Season: The Chico Mendes Story (TV Movie) (visual effects supervisor)

 1994 In the Army Now (visual effects supervisor)

 1994 Roswell (TV Movie) (visual effects supervisor)

 1994 True Lies (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects - as Gene Warren)

 1994 The Shadow (visual effects supervisor)

 1994 Against the Wall (TV Movie) (visual effects supervisor)

 1993 Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman (TV Movie) (visual effects supervisor)

 1993 My Boyfriend's Back (special visual effects - as Gene Warren)

 1993 Last Action Hero (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II)

 1993 Freaked (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1992 Nemesis (visual effects supervisor)

 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula (visual effects supervisor)

 1992 Dr. Giggles (computer imaging supervisor)

 1992 The Presence (TV Movie) (visual effects)

 1991 Going Under (visual effects supervisor)

 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1990 Captain America (visual effects supervisor)

 1990 It (TV Mini Series) (special visual effects supervisor - 2 episodes)

- Part 2 (1990) ... (special visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II)

- Part 1 (1990) ... (special visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II)

 1990 Frankenstein Unbound (visual effects supervisor)

 1990 Tremors (visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film)

 1989 The Abyss (effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1989 Pet Sematary (effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1989 Cyborg (visual effects supervisor)

 1989 From the Dead of Night (TV Movie) (visual effects supervisor)

 1988 Fright Night Part 2 (special visual effects supervisor)

 1988 Lady in White (visual effects supervisor)

 1988 Bad Dreams (crew: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1987 Nightflyers (special visual effects supervisor)

 1986 Critters (miniature effects supervisor)

 1986 Eliminators (optical effects: Quick Silver FX/Studio)

 1985 The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (Documentary) (titles and opticals: Fantasy II)

 1985 The Return of the Living Dead (visual effects supervisor)

 1984 The Terminator (special effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1983 Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (special visual effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1983 The Winds of War (TV Mini Series) (visual effects - 3 episodes)

- Into the Maelstrom (1983) ... (visual effects)

- Cataclysm (1983) ... (visual effects)

- The Storm Breaks (1983) ... (visual effects)

 1978 Avalanche (visual effects - uncredited)

 1977 Black Sunday (visual effects - uncredited)

Hide Hide Animation department (1 credit)

 1974-1976 Land of the Lost (TV Series) (animator - 42 episodes)

- Medicine Man (1976) ... (animator)

- Scarab (1976) ... (animator)

- Ancient Guardian (1976) ... (animator)

- Timestop (1976) ... (animator)

- Abominable Snowman (1976) ... (animator)

 

Special effects (7 credits)

 2014 This Way Up (Short) (minature mechanical effects supervisor)

 2007/II The Trunk (Short) (special effects coordinator)

 2001 Attila (TV Mini Series) (special effects supervisor - 2 episodes)

- Episode #1.2 (2001) ... (special effects supervisor)

- Episode #1.1 (2001) ... (special effects supervisor)

 1998 Mr. Murder (TV Movie) (special effects supervisor)

 1988 Bat*21 (special effects supervisor)

 1988 Killer Klowns from Outer Space (special effects supervisor: Fantasy II Film Effects)

 1988 A Time of Destiny (special effects supervisor)

Cinematographer (1 credit)

 1987 The Puppetoon Movie

Thanks (5 credits)

 2019 Dante Falls (Short) (special thanks)

 2013 Close to Home (Video short) (very special thanks)

 2011 Vanished from Alcatraz (TV Movie documentary) (special thanks)

 2001 Other Voices: Back Through Time: Creating 'the Terminator': Cast & Crew Recollections (Video documentary) (special thanks)

 1995 Attack of the 60 Foot Centerfolds (special thanks)

 

Self (14 credits)

 2021 Pennywise: The Story of It (Documentary)

Self

 2018 Shoestring Fantasy: The Effects of Cyborg (Video documentary short)

Self

 2017 Titanic: 20 Years Later with James Cameron (TV Movie documentary)

Self / Academy Award Winning VFX Supervisor

 2017 American Portrait (Documentary short)

Self

 2016 You're So Cool, Brewster! The Story of Fright Night (Documentary)

Self

 2013 Hollywood Defined (TV Series short)

Self

- Miniatures (2013) ... Self

 2007 In Camera: The Naïve Visual Effects of 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' (Video documentary short)

Self

 2001 On the 6th Day (Video documentary)

Self

 2001 Visual Effects with Gene Warren, Jr. (Video short)

Self

 2001 Other Voices: Back Through Time: Creating 'the Terminator': Cast & Crew Recollections (Video documentary)

Self - Fantasy II VFX Supervisor

 2000 Terminator 2: Judgement Day Ultimate Edition - Archival Commentary with 26 Cast & Crew (Video)

Self (voice)

 1998 Masters of Fantasy (TV Series documentary)

Self - Fantasy II Film Effects

- Gale Anne Hurd (1998) ... Self - Fantasy II Film Effects (as Gene Warren)

 1994 Movie Magic (TV Series documentary short)

Self

- Forced Perspective: Eye of the Beholder (1994) ... Self

 1992 The 64th Annual Academy Awards (TV Special)

Self - Winner