Avanelle Harris obit

 Dancer and Singer Avanelle Harris has died

 She was not on the list.

Avanelle Harris was born on February 18, 1917 in Wisconsin, USA. She was an actress, known for Up Jumped the Devil (1941) and Lucky Ghost (1942). She died on February 5, 2014 in Los Angeles, California, USA

Actress (21 credits)

 1945 Ziegfeld Follies

Club Patron ('Love') (uncredited)

 1944 Carolina Blues

Dancer in 'Mr. Beebe' (uncredited)

 1944 Broadway Rhythm

Dancer in 'Brazilian Boogie' (uncredited)

 1943 The Desert Song

Bellydancer (uncredited)

 1943 I Dood It

Part of Hazel Scott's Entourage / Singer in Jericho (uncredited)

 1943 Thank Your Lucky Stars

Dancer in 'Ice Cold Katy' Number (uncredited)

 1943 Stormy Weather

Dancer (uncredited)

 1943 Cabin in the Sky

Dancer / Jim Henry's Paradise Patron (uncredited)

 1942 Star Spangled Rhythm

Dancer - 'Sharp as a Tack' Number (uncredited)

 1942 Born to Sing

Speciality - 'Ballad for Americans' (uncredited)

 1942 Lady Luck

Fourth Waitress (as Aranelle Harris)

 1941 Up Jumped the Devil

 1941 Belle Starr

Dressed-up Freed Slave (uncredited)

 1940 Irene

Dancer in Harlem Version of Alice Blue Gown Number (uncredited)

 1939 Double Deal

Nightclub Patron (uncredited)

 1938 The Duke Is Tops

Dancer (uncredited)

 1938 The Girl of the Golden West

Dancer (uncredited)

 1937 Vogues of 1938

Dancer in 'Turn On That Red Hot Heat - Burn Your Blues Away' (uncredited)

 1937 A Day at the Races

Black Singer (uncredited)

 1936 The Singing Kid

Dancer (uncredited)

 1936 Strike Me Pink

Dancer / Singer in 'First You Have Me High (Then You Have Me Low)' (uncredited)

Keith Allen obit

‘Broad Street Bullies’ mastermind Keith Allen dead at 90 

He was not on the list.

Keith Allen, the front office architect who built the Flyers into a National Hockey League power in the 1970s, died Tuesday at 90. He had been living in a Newtown Square extended care facility, reportedly since Hurricane Sandy tore into his family’s home on Long Beach Island in October 2012.

Allen was the expansion franchise’s first coach, hired by initial general manager Bud Poile in 1967. Despite a won-loss record of 51-67-32 over two seasons as head coach, his upstart team made the playoffs in 1968 and ’69, losing twice to the St. Louis Blues.

But Allen really made his mark as a GM of the club, taking over for Poile later in 1969 and under the directive of owner Ed Snider began to bring in physical players who would form the brawling foundation of the ‘Broad Street Bullies.’

Allen quickly showed he was also an elite talent evaluator. His draft picks included Bill Barber and Bill Clement, who together with 1969 second-round pick Bobby Clarke would soon help to boost the club into the upper echelon of teams in the league. While the Flyers gained a well-deserved rap as a club that never hesitated to goon its way to victory, their skill was undervalued by almost every other team in the league, something that served them well on the road to Stanley Cup championships in 1974 and ’75.

He had a master’s touch for trades, earning the nickname ‘Keith the Thief.’ He would trade for players such as Barry Ashbee, Terry Crisp, Rick MacLeish and Reggie Leach among many others. He traded goalie Bernie Parent in 1971, then traded to get him back in 1973. The titles would soon come.

‘In my mind, he was and always will be one of the greatest general managers in the history of hockey,’ Flyers club chairman Ed Snider said in a statement. ‘He was known as ‘Keith the Thief.’ I never knew of a bad deal he made. This team would never have reached the level of success we have had over the past 48 years, if it were not for Keith.’

In Allen’s 14 years as GM, half of them with Fred Shero as his personally appointed coaching guru, the Flyers went 613-360-215, making the playoffs 12 times and going to four Stanley Cup finals, winning twice.

‘Keith was responsible for the Flyers winning the Stanley Cup,’ said Clarke, now an executive vice president, an advisory position similar to what Allen held during Clarke’s years as a GM. ‘He was in charge of the draft, in charge of the trades, in charge of getting Bernie back. All the things that were necessary for the Flyers to win the Stanley Cup. Keith put the pieces in place and hired (Shero). So he, more than anybody, was responsible for us winning two Cups.’

Allen was a native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and was a longtime player in the AHL. He twice was promoted to the Detroit Red Wings during the 1953-54 and 1954-55 seasons. He later played then coached in the Western Hockey League before joining Poile with the start-up Flyers.

Allen was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992, in the builder’s category.

Snider said that Allen had long been ‘one of my closest confidants and one of my best friends. I will never forget all of the many memories we shared together.’

Clarke indicated that for all of Allen’s talents, the way he touched people might have been his greatest gift.

‘Keith was one of those men you very rarely come across, who was very fatherly (or) grandfatherly to all us players and our families, and yet was tough enough and strong enough to do the things that were necessary so that we had the right players to win a Stanley Cup,’ Clarke said. ‘And every player who ever played here under his leadership liked Keith. Everybody who was traded liked Keith. … One of the few men in hockey, maybe the only man in hockey, who everybody liked. Didn’t have a person who disliked him in the world. Wonderful, wonderful man. And one of the best general managers of all-time.’

 

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Regular season             Playoffs

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

1939–40            North Battleford Beavers            N-SJHL   —            —            —            —            —            —            —            —            —            —

1940–41            Saskatoon Quakers            SJHL            10            4            0            4            2            2            1            0            1            2

1940–41            Saskatoon Quakers            M-Cup            —            —            —            —            —            14            3            3            6            8

1941–42            Washington Eagles            EAHL            60            13            11            24            27            8            0            1            1            0

1942–43            Buffalo Bisons  AHL            55            1            14            15            29            7            1            0            1            0

1943–44            Saskatoon Navy            SSHL            15            9            7            16            12            1            0            0            0            0

1944–45            Saskatoon Navy            SJHL            5            0            1            1            0            —            —            —            —            —

1945–46            Saskatoon Elks            WCHL            33            5            4            9            42            3            1            0            1            6

1946–47            Springfield Indians            AHL            61            2            8            10            23            2            0            0            0

1947–48            Springfield Indians            AHL            51            2            12            14            12            —            —            —            —            —

1948–49            Springfield Indians            AHL            68            3            28            31            28            3            1            0            1            4

1949–50            Springfield Indians            AHL            69            3            17            20            30            2            0            2            2            0

1950–51            Springfield Indians            AHL            70            8            34            42            18            3            0            0            0            0

1951–52            Syracuse Warriors            AHL            67            4            17            21            24            —            —            —            —            —

1952–53            Syracuse Warriors            AHL            64            1            18            19            24            2            0            0            0            0

1953–54            Syracuse Warriors            AHL            47            6            17            23            14            —            —            —            —            —

1953–54            Sherbrooke Saints            QHL            3            0            1            1            4            —            —            —            —            —

1953–54            Detroit Red Wings            NHL            10            0            4            4            2            5            0            0            0            0

1954–55            Detroit Red Wings            NHL            18            0            0            0            6            —            —            —            —            —

1954–55            Edmonton Flyers            WHL            34            4            12            16            10            9            0            2            2            6

1955–56            Brandon Regals            WHL            69            0            13            13            40            —            —            —            —            —

1956–57            Seattle Americans            WHL            41            0            6            6            0            —            —            —            —            —

AHL totals            552            30            165            195            202            19            2            2            4            4

NHL totals            28            0            4            4            8            5            0            0            0            0

Louise Brough - #69

She was number 69 on the list.

Louise Brough Clapp, Tennis Champion at Midcentury, Dies at 90

By RICHARD GOLDSTEINFEB. 5, 2014

Louise Brough Clapp, whose powerful serve-and-volley game propelled her to 35 championships in Grand Slam tennis tournaments of the 1940s and ’50s and made her one of the most brilliant doubles players in the women’s game, died on Monday in Vista, Calif. She was 90.

The International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., announced her death.

A former teenage star in Southern California, Louise Brough, as she was known for most of her career, was ranked among America’s top 10 female players 16 times by the United States Tennis Association and achieved the No. 1 national ranking in 1947. She was No. 1 in the world in 1955.

She won six singles titles, including four at Wimbledon, as well as 21 doubles championships and 8 mixed doubles titles in Grand Slam events, tying her with Doris Hart at No. 5 on the overall career list for both women and men.

In doubles play, Brough (pronounced bruff) usually teamed with Margaret Osborne duPont, a longtime friend, and they were virtually unbeatable. Brough and duPont captured 12 women’s doubles championships in the United States Nationals, the forerunner of the United States Open, winning every year at Forest Hills, Queens, from 1942 to 1950 and again from 1955 to 1957.

They also won five doubles titles at Wimbledon and three at the French championships. Brough’s only Grand Slam women’s doubles title without duPont came when she teamed with Hart at the 1950 Australian championships.

But in the quest for women’s tennis supremacy, duPont, who died in 2012, was also a rival, as were Hart, Maureen Connolly, Althea Gibson, Shirley Fry and Pauline Betz.

Brough defeated duPont for the 1947 Nationals title in singles play, then lost to her in the 1948 final in a match that went to 28 games in the last set. Brough bested duPont twice in the Wimbledon singles final.

One of Brough’s most memorable matches came in the second round of the Nationals in 1950, when she faced Gibson, who that year became the first black player allowed to enter the tournament. Gibson was ahead, 7-6, in the third set when a thunderstorm suspended play. Brough won the next day by taking three consecutive games, but that match heralded the beginning of Gibson’s rise to stardom.

The Grand Slam champion Alice Marble marveled at Brough’s twist serve and its topspin, which overwhelmed her opponents.

Brough “streamlined it to match that of many of our men,” Marble once wrote. “She gets an enormously high bounce on this serve, and women are notoriously feeble in their effort to return it, especially on the backhand.”

The tennis historian and journalist Bud Collins called Brough “one of the great volleyers in history” and paid tribute to her prowess in doubles.

“A willowy blonde, she was quiet and diffident, but she was the killer in the left court when at play alongside duPont,” he wrote in “Bud Collins’ Modern Encyclopedia of Tennis.”

Althea Louise Brough was born in Oklahoma City on March 11, 1923. Her family moved to Beverly Hills, Calif., when she was a child, and she learned to play on public courts. She vied with Gussie Moran (who would be best known for creating a sensation at Wimbledon in 1949 with her lace-trimmed panties) as the best teenage player of their era in Southern California and won the girls’ national junior championships in 1940 and 1941.

Brough’s Wimbledon singles titles came in 1948, 1949 and 1950 and again in 1955. Besides winning the United States singles title in 1947, she was runner-up five times. She won the Australian singles in 1950. And she had a 22-0 record in Wightman Cup play between the United States and Britain.

Joan Mondale obit

She was not on the list.

Joan Mondale, wife of former U.S. vice president, dies at 83

Joan Mondale, the wife of former U.S. Vice President Walter Mondale and a champion of the arts, died on Monday, her family said in a statement. She was 83.

Mondale died with the former vice president, her sons Ted and William, and other family members at her side, said the statement released through their church. She entered hospice care on Friday. The family did not provide details on her illness.

"We are grateful for the expressions of love and support we have received. Joan was greatly loved by many. We will miss her dearly," Walter Mondale, 86, said in a statement.

Mondale's support for the arts ran more than six decades from her study and work in college through her promotion of arts programs and artists during and after Walter Mondale's terms as a U.S. senator, vice president and ambassador.

"A lifelong patron of the arts, Joan filled the vice presidential mansion with works by dozens of artists, including many unknowns, and later did the same at the U.S. embassy in Japan during her husband's tenure as ambassador," President Barack Obama and his wife said in a statement.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Vice President Mondale and his family today as we remember with gratitude 'Joan of Art' and her service to our nation."

Named by former President Jimmy Carter as honorary chairperson of the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, Mondale advocated for government support of the arts across the United States, according to a biography from the Minnesota Historical Society.

Mondale had given tours and lectures at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and gave tours of the National Gallery of Art after moving with her family to Washington, the biography said. Her 1972 book, "Politics in Art," was based on her lectures.

She filled the vice president's residence with contemporary American art during Walter Mondale's term and immersed herself in Japanese art when he served as ambassador to Japan in the 1990s, according to the historical society biography.

Joan Mondale was preceded in death by her daughter Eleanor Mondale, who died in 2011 from brain cancer.

A service will be held on Saturday at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, the statement said.

Richard Bull - #68

"Little House" actor Richard Bull dies at 89

He was number 68 on the list.


Actor Richard Bull, best known as long-suffering storekeeper Nels Oleson on "Little House on the Prairie," has died. He was 89.

Bull died Monday in Calabasas, Calif., according to his TV daughter Alison Arngrim.

"Goodbye Pa," tweeted Arngrim, who played nasty Nellie Oleson on the show, which ran from 1973-1984.

Born in Zion, Illinois, Bull had roles in the 1968 movie “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “The Andromeda Strain” (1971) and “High Plains Drifter” (1973).

He was a regular on the 1960s TV series "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and appeared in several other shows, including "Peyton Place," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Family Affair," "Barnaby Jones," "Mission: Impossible" and "Hill Street Blues."

But Bull was best known as Nels Oleson, the mild-mannered mercantile owner on "Little House." Poor Mr. Nelson was hectored by his arrogant, greedy wife Harriet (played by Katherine "Scottie" MacGregor) and spoiled children Nellie (Arngrim) and Willie (Jonathan Gilbert).

In real life, Bull was happily married to Barbara Collentine for more than 65 years.

"I sometimes feel sorry for Nels Oleson," Bull told United Press International in a 1979 article that Arngrim tweeted. "I couldn't take some of the things he does. Barbara and I share everything and try to be a burden to each other."

After "Little House" ended, Bull appeared with Michael Landon and and Victor French on a few episodes of "Highway to Heaven."

Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura Ingalls Wilder on "Little House," was among his former castmates tweeting tributes.

Bull is survived by his wife. They had no children.

Filmography

Film

 

        Full of Life (1956) as Doctor (uncredited)

        Fear Strikes Out (1957) as Reporter Slade (uncredited)

        Operation Mad Ball (1957) as Military Police Sergeant (uncredited)

        The True Story of Lynn Stuart (1958) as Customs Officer (uncredited)

        But Not for Me (1959) as Ticket Seller (uncredited)

        Then There Were Three (1961)

        Della (1964) as Mark Nodella

        The Satan Bug (1965) as Eric Cavanaugh

        In Like Flint (1967) as Newscaster (uncredited)

        Hour of the Gun (1967) as Thomas Fitch

        How to Steal the World (1968) as Captain Gelser (archive footage)

        The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) as Booth Guard

        The Secret Life of an American Wife (1968) as Howard

        The Stalking Moon (1968) as Doctor

        Moonfire (1970) as Hawkins

        Move (1970) as Keith

        Lawman (1971) as Dusaine

        The Andromeda Strain (1971) as an Air Force major

        Man and Boy (1971) as Thornhill

        Ulzana's Raid (1972) as Ginsford

        High Plains Drifter (1973) as Asa Goodwin

        The President's Plane is Missing (1973, TV Movie) as Flight Controller

        Executive Action (1973) as a gunman on "Team A"

        Breezy (1973) as Doctor

        Newman's Law (1974) as Immigration Man

        The Parallax View (1974) as Parallax Goon

        Mr. Sycamore (1975) as Dr. Ferfield

        A Different Story (1978) as Mr. Cooke

        A Day in a Life (2000) as Will

        The Secret (2001) as Grandpa

        Let's Go to Prison (2006) as Board Member #2

        Sugar (2008) as Earl Higgins

        Witless Protection (2008) as Sheriff Smoot

        Osso Bucco (2008) as Old Man Diner

 

Television

 

        Men Into Space (1959) as Radio Operator in "Asteroid"

        Highway Patrol (1959 - 4th season episode 25) as bank robber, Bert Nelson

        Harrigan and Son (1961) as Lawson in "They Were All in Step But Jim"

        Gunsmoke (1962) as Nort in "Collie's Free"

        My Three Sons (1962) as J. C. Dobbins

        The Eleventh Hour (1964) as Phil Whitman in "Sunday Father"

        Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964-1968 TV Series) as The Doctor, various episodes

        Kentucky Jones (1965) as Harold Erkel in episodes "The Victim" and "The Return of Wong Lee"

        Blue Light (1966) in episode "Sacrifice!"

        Mission: Impossible (1966) as an agent for the Impossible Missions Force

        Mannix - (1968-1974) 7 episodes as 4 different characters

        Gomer Pyle, USMC (1966) as the psychologist in the episode "Gomer and the Little Space Men".

        Bonanza (1969-1972) as Jess Hill/Mr. Goodman (2 episodes)

        Columbo (1971) as 2nd Detective in episode "Lady in Waiting"

        Nichols (1971-1972) 5 episodes as Thatcher

        The Streets of San Francisco (1973-1974) as the coroner

        Barnaby Jones (1973-1976) 4 episodes as J.I. Fletcher

        Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983) as Nels Oleson

        Wipeout (1976) as Sheriff Safian

        Dead Man's Run as Mr. Moore

        Blind Terror (1973) as Mr. Strather

        Perchance to Kill (1973) as J.I. Fletcher

        Hill Street Blues (1985) as Capt. Furillo's father

        Highway to Heaven (1985) as the doctor (2 episodes)

        It's Garry Shandling's Show as Stanley (1 episode)

        Highway to Heaven (1988) as Judge Wagner (1 episode)

        Designing Women (1988) as Everett

        ER (1999) as nice man on the train (1 episode)

        Normal (2003, TV Movie) as Roy, Sr.

        Boss (2011) as Elderly Farmer (final appearance)