Grace Lee Whitney obit

'Star Trek' actress Grace Lee Whitney dies at 85

She was not on the list.

Grace Lee Whitney, who played Captain Kirk's assistant on the original "Star Trek" series, has died. She was 85.

Whitney died of natural causes Friday in her home in the Central California town of Coarsegold, about 50 miles north of Fresno, her son Jonathan Dweck said on Sunday.

Whitney played Yeoman Janice Rand in the first eight episodes before being written out of the series. In her 1998 autobiography "The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy," she wrote that her acting career largely came to an end and she became an alcoholic.

She wrote that she struggled with her addiction for many years before getting treatment and regaining her career with the help of Leonard Nimoy, who starred as Spock in the series.

She returned for the movie franchise, reprising her role in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country."

Dweck said his mother would have liked to be remembered more as a successful survivor of addiction than for her "Star Trek" fame. She dedicated the last 35 years of her life helping people with addiction problems, some of whom she met at "Star Trek" conventions, he said.

"Over time, she became appreciative of her short time on `Star Trek' because she developed meaningful relationships with the fans, Leonard Nimoy and other cast members," Dweck said.

Whitney debuted on Broadway in Top Banana, with Phil Silvers and Kaye Ballard, playing Miss Holland. Following the successful run of the show, she joined the cast in Hollywood, where she recreated the role in the 1954 movie of the same name. While in Los Angeles, Whitney auditioned for and was cast in the starring role of Lucy Brown in the national tour of The Threepenny Opera, taking over the role from Bea Arthur, who had played the part in New York off-Broadway.

Whitney made more than a hundred television appearances following her television dramatic debut in Cowboy G-Men in 1953. She appeared on episodes of The Real McCoys, Wagon Train, The Islanders, Hennesey, The Roaring 20s, Gunsmoke, Bat Masterson, The Rifleman, 77 Sunset Strip, Bewitched, Mike Hammer, Batman, The Untouchables, and Hawaiian Eye.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, Whitney was a frequent semi-regular on between 80 and 100 live television shows including You Bet Your Life hosted by Groucho Marx in 1953, The Red Skelton Show, The Jimmy Durante Show and The Ernie Kovacs Show, largely appearing in gag sketches. From 1957 to 1958, she appeared as a "Vanna-type adornment" on the popular daytime show Queen for a Day.

Other appearances included an episode of The Outer Limits, "Controlled Experiment", co-starring Barry Morse and Carroll O'Connor, Mannix, Death Valley Days, The Big Valley, and The Virginian. In 1962, she appeared in the episode of The Rifleman entitled "The Tin Horn". In 1964, she played a character Babs Livingston on Bewitched in the episode "It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog".

Whitney was cast as a member of the all-female band in Billy Wilder's comedy Some Like It Hot (1959). She shared several scenes with Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe, including the famed "upper berth" sequence. She had uncredited roles in House of Wax (1953), Top Banana (1954), The Naked and the Dead (1958), and Pocketful of Miracles (1961). Whitney was credited as Tracey Phillips in the drama A Public Affair (1962), and as Texas Rose in the western The Man from Galveston (1963). Billy Wilder then gave her the featured role of "Kiki the Cossack" in Irma la Douce (1963).

Besides Jonathan, she was survived by her other son, Scott Dweck.

Filmography

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1954      Top Banana        Miss Holland      Uncredited

1958      The Naked and the Dead               Girl in Dream Sequence                Uncredited

1959      Some Like It Hot               Rosella Uncredited

1961      Pocketful of Miracles      Queenie's 'Broad' in Black Dress                Uncredited

1962      A Public Affair    Tracey Phillips  

1963      The Virginian      Nina       Episode "Echo of Another Day"

1963      Critic's Choice    Minor role          

1963      The Man from Galveston              Texas Rose          TV Series, 1 episode

1963      Irma la Douce    Kiki the Cossack               

1964      Controlled Experiment   Carla Duveen     Only comedy episode of The Outer Limits             

1966      Star Trek              Yeoman Janice Rand       TV Series, 8 episodes

1979      Star Trek: The Motion Picture    

1984      Star Trek III: The Search for Spock             Woman in Cafeteria       

1986      Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Lt. Commander Janice Rand        

1991      Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

1996      Star Trek: Voyager           TV Series, 1 episode

2007      Star Trek: New Voyages                web series, 1 episode

2007      Star Trek: Of Gods and Men         (final film role)

Michael Blake obit

Michael Blake, 69, Writer, Dies; Won Oscar for ‘Dances With Wolves’

He was not on the list.

Michael Blake, who had been washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant when an old friend, Kevin Costner, asked him to adapt his own novel into a screenplay, which became the Oscar-winning script for the Oscar-winning western epic “Dances With Wolves,” died on Saturday in Tucson. He was 69.

The cause was heart failure, Daniel Ostroff, a film producer who was Mr. Blake’s agent and manager, said. Mr. Blake had previously had non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and underwent a double bypass surgery in 2004.

Mr. Blake was a classic example of a Hollywood type: someone who works for years to become an overnight sensation. He began writing screenplays in the 1970s while attending film school at the University of California, Berkeley, where he met Jim Wilson, who would later produce “Dances With Wolves.” Mr. Blake’s first produced script, “Stacy’s Knights,” a gambling story directed by Mr. Wilson that was one of Mr. Costner’s first starring roles, was released in 1983. For the next several years, though, nothing he wrote made it to the screen.

However, after reading Dee Brown’s history of American Indians and their persecution by the American government, “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee,” he had an idea for a movie about a white American soldier who finds himself alone on the Western frontier and befriends — and is befriended by — the native Sioux, whose way of life he comes to understand and appreciate. Mr. Blake shared the idea with Mr. Costner, to whom he gave credit for what happened next.

“I said, ‘Wouldn’t that make a great movie?’ ” Mr. Blake said in a 1991 interview with The New York Times. “And Kevin said, ‘Don’t you dare write another movie.’ Because I’d written probably 15 screenplays by that time. He said: ‘Write a book. You have a much better chance of reaching somebody with a book.’ He was adamant. He was even shaking his finger at me as I left the house that night. So a couple of weeks later I started writing it.”

The book begins this way:

“Lieutenant Dunbar wasn’t really swallowed. But that was the first word that stuck in his head. Everything was immense. The great, cloudless sky. The rolling ocean of grass. Nothing else, no matter where he put his eyes. No road. No trace of ruts for the big wagon to follow. Just sheer, empty space. He was adrift. It made his heart jump in a strange and profound way.”

ImageThe 1988 novel on which the film was based is estimated to have sold 3.5 million copies.

The 1988 novel on which the film was based is estimated to have sold 3.5 million copies.Credit...Anchor Books

By the time Mr. Blake finished the book — it was published, in paperback only, in 1988 — he had run out of money, lived in his car for a while and moved from Los Angeles to Bisbee, Ariz. He was barely getting by — he had just been fired from his dishwashing job — when Mr. Costner summoned him back to Los Angeles.

The film “Dances With Wolves,” released in 1990, starred Mr. Costner as Dunbar and Mary McDonnell as a white woman who had been adopted by the Sioux after her family was killed and who becomes Dunbar’s love interest.

It was criticized by some who found its treatment of the Indians (virtually all noble) and the American soldiers (virtually all, save Dunbar, sadistic and bigoted) simplistic and sentimental: “Once Dunbar has taken up with the Sioux and starts strutting around with a feather stuck in his hair, the movie teeters on the edge of Boy’s Life literature, that is, on the brink of earnest silliness,” Vincent Canby wrote in The Times. But it was immensely popular and won seven Academy Awards, including those for best picture, best direction (Mr. Costner) and best screenplay based on material from another medium (Mr. Blake).

The novel “Dances With Wolves” has been translated into 22 languages, said Mr. Ostroff, who estimated that it has sold 3.5 million copies.

Michael Lennox Webb was born on July 5, 1945, in Fort Bragg, N.C., where his father, James Webb, was in the Army, and grew up mostly in the San Diego area. He preferred the last name of his mother, Sally Blake, and eventually had his legally changed.

As a young man he joined the Air Force, and at Walker Air Force Base in New Mexico he was assigned to the public information office and began writing for the base newspaper. He attended the University of New Mexico before going to Berkeley.

Mr. Blake’s other novels include “Airman Mortensen” (1991), an autobiographical novel about the Air Force, and “The Holy Road” (2001), a sequel to “Dances With Wolves.”

Mr. Blake, who lived with his family in Sonoita, Ariz., had a first marriage that ended after 21 days, Mr. Ostroff said, either from divorce or annulment. He is survived by his wife, the former Marianne Mortensen, whom he married in 1993; a brother, Daniel Webb; a son, Quanah Valdemar Blake; and two daughters, Monahsetah Dagmar Blake and Lozen Ingefred Blake. The children’s first names are taken from American Indian historical figures; their middle names are Danish, in honor of their mother’s heritage.

Guy Carawan obit

Guy Carawan, Musician Known For 'We Shall Overcome,' Dies

 He was not on the list.

Civil rights activist and folk singer, Guy Carawan, died on Saturday, May 2 2015 in his home in New Market, Tenn.

During a performance at the 1960 founding convention of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at Highlander Folk School, Carawan introduced an updated version of the hymn, “We Shall Overcome.” His performance that night gave rise to “We Shall Overcome” as the unofficial theme song of the civil rights movement. The seminal anthem has been sung at marches, meeting and demonstrations as far reaching as the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March; anti-apartheid rallies in South Africa; and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Its lyrics were often quoted by Martin Luther King, Jr., and other civil rights leaders, and concluded President Lyndon Johnson’s remarks at the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Born on July 27, 1927 in Santa Monica, Calif., Carawan studied at Occidental College and went on to earn his MA in Sociology at UCLA. While working on his master’s degree, the musically-inclined Carawan became deeply interested in folk music and political activism. This interest propelled him to travel throughout the south during the early 1950’s, singing for his keep and collecting folk music along the way.

In 1959, Carawan was named the musical director for Highlander Folk School, a leadership training organization for social justice and civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr. From Highlander, Carawan helped to disseminate other important Freedom Songs, such as “Keep Your Eyes on the Prize,” and used music as a way of teaching the importance of civil rights issues to a broader audience. Although he remained the musical director of Highlander until his retirement in the late 1980’s, Carawan tirelessly traveled all over the country with his wife, Candie Anderson, marching, striking, and singing in the name of civil rights. In 2006, the couple were presented with the Call to Conscience Award at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute’s annual King Holiday celebration.

Carawan was a producer or co-producer of many recordings, including “Birmingham, Alabama, 1963: Mass Meeting,” which features Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Abernathy and the Birmingham Movement Choir; “The Story of Greenwood, Mississippi,” featuring Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers and Dick Gregory; and “Freedom in the Air: Albany Georgia, 1961-62,” produced with Alan Lomax. As a singer, Carawan can be heard on several albums, among them “Songs With Guy Carawan.” The royalties Carawan receives from the commercial use of “We Shall Overcome,” are donated to the Highlander Center to support social and cultural programs in the South, and are evidence of his lifelong commitment to social and cultural justice.

Carawan is survived by his wife, their two children, Evan and Heather Carawan, and a granddaughter.

Craig Gruber obit

Rainbow bassist Craig Gruber dead at 63

 

He was not on the list.

Original Rainbow bass player Craig Gruber has died of cancer at the age of 63.

Gruber passed away in Florida, USA, on Tuesday while under the care of members of the Faith Tabernacle Church, who tell TeamRock they had been looking after him for the last six months of his life. He had been battling prostate cancer for some time.

Senior Pastor at the church, Steve Anderson, says: “Our friend and brother in Christ, Craig Gruber is now with Jesus. He passed away about 3.20pm. Thank you all for your prayers of faith.”

Gruber played on Rainbow’s first album Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow and was also a member of Elf alongside Ronnie James Dio. He later worked with Dio on the Black Sabbath album Heaven And Hell after Geezer Butler opted not to continue with the band following Ozzy Osbourne’s departure.

But Gruber’s involvement with Sabbath came to an end before the record was made as Butler had a change of heart. Gruber later toured with Gary Moore in the 1980s and formed the band Bible Black with former Rainbow drummer Gary Driscoll.

He is best known as the original bassist in Rainbow. He also played in Elf, consisting of vocalist Ronnie James Dio, keyboardist Mickey Lee Soule, drummer Gary Driscoll, and guitarist David Feinstein.

Elf released three albums before they joined Ritchie Blackmore in his newly formed band Rainbow in mid-1975. Gruber played on Rainbow's first album, Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Soon after the album was released, Blackmore fired everyone except Dio. Gruber was also in the early recording sessions on Black Sabbath's Heaven and Hell album, co-writing "Die Young," until Geezer Butler heard Dio, and returned to the band.

Gruber played live with Gary Moore on his supporting tour for his album Victims of the Future, and featured on Moore's 1984 live album We Want Moore! In 1980 he formed Bible Black with former Elf and Rainbow drummer Gary Driscoll. The band produced two albums before Driscoll's murder in 1987. Gruber had also been working on an Elf reunion, even though such a prospect seemed unlikely given the deaths of Driscoll and frontman Ronnie James Dio; both of whom had been members of the band from foundation until dissolution.

Early in 2010 Gruber formed "ED3N"- a metal band in the classic rock genre. The band featured vocalist Jeff Fenholt and guitarist David Shankle, of DSG and formerly Manowar.

Discography

With Elf

Carolina County Ball (1974)

Trying to Burn the Sun (1975)

With Rainbow

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (1975)

With Ozz

No Prisoners (1980)

With Bible Black

Bible Black (1981)

Ground Zero (1983)

With Gary Moore

We Want Moore! (1984)

Blinder (Ca. 1984)

With The Rods

Heavier Than Thou (1986)

Bob Schmidt obit

Robert Benjamin Schmidt Baseball Catcher, Has died 

He was not on the list.

Professional baseball player. He was signed as an amateur free agent by the New York Giants before the 1951 season at the age of 18. During his 50 games for the Lenoir Red Sox of the Western Carolina League, he accumulated 27 runs and 37 RBIs from 48 hits in 169 at bats for a debut batting average of .284, including 4 home runs, 11 doubles and 6 triples. Bob methodically climbed through the minor league system, where he spent 5 seasons, but in 1953 and 1954, he was serving in the Korean War. After returning home in 1955, he went back to the minors, playing in the Carolina League for the Danville Leafs. He was selected All-Star Catcher in 1956 while playing for the Dallas Eagles in the Double-A Texas League and again in 1957 when he played for the Minneapolis Millers in the Triple-A American Association league.

His first major league game was on April 16, 1958, playing for the recently relocated San Francisco Giants, where he was selected to be on the National League All-Star Team, however, he did not appear in the 1958 All-Star Game. On June 4 of that same year in a game against the Milwaukee Braves, he and Hank Sauer became the first players in National League history to hit back-to-back pinch-hit home runs when they connected off reliever Ernie Johnson. Bob shared the catching duties with Valmy Thomas and finished the year with 127 games, accumulating 96 hits in 393 at bats for a .244 batting average along with 14 home runs, 20 doubles, 2 triples and 54 runs batted in. On August 31, 1958, Bob hit a home run and had 6 runs batted in against future Baseball Hall of Fame member, Sandy Koufax, of the Los Angeles Dodgers, including a first-inning grand slam, but by 1959, he was sharing the Giants' catching job with left-handed hitter Hobie Landrith.

In 1961, after playing 9 games in the Triple-A American Association league for the Indianapolis Indians and only 2 games for the San Francisco Giants, he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for catcher Ed Bailey and played as a reserve to regular catcher Jerry Zimmerman during the Reds' pennant-winning season of 1961. He did not make the post-season roster when the Reds lost to the New York Yankees in the World Series. In 1962 he was traded along with Dave Stenhouse to the Washington Senators for Marty Keough and Johnny Klippstein. During the next few years he was in and out of the minor leagues, playing 88 games for the Richmond Virginians of the International League and 9 games for the American League Washington Senators in 1963; back to the Richmond Virginians in 1964; played 69 games for the Toledo Mud Hens of the International League and 20 games for the American League New York Yankees in 1965, ending his major league career on June 9, 1965.

 In 1966, Bob played one more season for the Toledo Mud Hens of the International League before leaving baseball at the age of 33. After baseball, Bob became a foreman for a construction company and retired in St. Charles, Missouri. During his ten total years in the minors, Bob played in 861 games, accumulating 725 hits in 2761 at bats for a .263 career batting average along with 93 home runs, 130 doubles, 12 triples and 274 runs batted in. In 1957, he led the American Association catchers with the best fielding average of .994. In a seven-year major league career, Bob played in 454 games, accumulating 317 hits in 1,305 at bats for a .243 career batting average along with 39 home runs, 55 doubles, 4 triples and 150 runs batted in. He and Hank Sauer became the first players in National League history to hit back-to-back pinch-hit home runs when they connected off of reliever Ernie Johnson.

He held the Major League record for most putouts in an extra inning game with 22, which was set on June 22, 1958, and he held for 45 years until Damian Miller of the Chicago Cubs surpassed him on May 15, 2003. Bob led the National League catchers in double plays in 1958 and led the American League in fielding percentage in 1962 while playing for the Washington Senators. He had a career fielding percentage of .987 in the minors and .988 in the majors, which gives him an overall career fielding percentage of .987.

Philip S. Goodman obit

Philip S. Goodman, Writer & Director for Film, TV, Dies at 89

 He was not on the list.

Philip S. Goodman, a writer and director for film, television and stage, died May 2 at his home in New York City. He was 89. 

Goodman wrote episodes of 1950s and ’60s TV shows such as “Profiles in Courage,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” and “Johnny Staccato.” He directed the 1963 feature  “We Shall Return” (United Pictures International), which centered on anti-Castro Cuban fighters in Miami and starred Cesar Romero.

At the Actors’ Studio in New York, where he was a member of the Directors Group, Goodman directed workshops of his plays, “Love Is a Candy Cane” and “This Notoriety Business.”

Goodman wrote and directed television documentaries and industrial films for many years. In 1970 he wrote three episodes of National Educational Television’s “Our Vanishing Wilderness,” one of the first series on television to focus on environmental issues. He also directed TV commercials for Coca-Cola, RCA, Revlon and Rheingold beer, among many others.

Later in life, Goodman turned to musical theater. The musical “A Good Man,” with book by Goodman and music by Ray Leslee, was produced by the Vienna Chamber Opera in 2006 and was selected for the National Music Theater Conference’s 2012 season at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut.

Goodman, a graduate of Brooklyn College and USC, served in the U.S. Army during WWII.

He is survived by his daughter Jody, a lawyer; his son Nicholas, a film producer; and two grandchildren.

 

Writer

Japan Reaches for the 21st Century

TV Movie

Writer

1986

 

Burt Reynolds in Hawk (1966)

Hawk

6.9

TV Series

story

1966

1 episode

 

Profiles in Courage (1964)

Profiles in Courage

8.4

TV Series

teleplay

written by

1965

3 episodes

 

We Shall Return (1963)

We Shall Return

5.3

additional dialogue

1963

 

Johnny Staccato (1959)

Johnny Staccato

8.0

TV Series

writer

1959

1 episode

 

Alfred Hitchcock in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

8.5

TV Series

story (as Phillip S. Goodman)

1957

1 episode

 

Panic! (1957)

Panic!

8.3

TV Series

story by

1957

1 episode

 

Matinee Theatre (1955)

Matinee Theatre

7.7

TV Series

story

1955

1 episode

 

Danger (1950)

Danger

7.6

TV Series

writer

1955

1 episode

 

Roscoe Karns in Rocky King, Detective (1950)

Rocky King, Detective

7.7

TV Series

writer

teleplay

written by

1953–1954

12 episodes

 

Director

Japan Reaches for the 21st Century

TV Movie

Director

1986

 

MysteryDisc: Murder, Anyone? (1982)

MysteryDisc: Murder, Anyone?

6.0

Video Game

Director

1982

 

We Shall Return (1963)

We Shall Return

5.3

Director

1963

 

Actor

M.U.G.E.N (1999)

M.U.G.E.N

7.5

Video Game

1999

 

We Shall Return (1963)

We Shall Return

5.3

Counterman (uncredited)

1963

Peter Brown obit

PGA Golfer Pete Brown Has Died 

He was not on the list.

Peter Brown was an American professional golfer who is best known as the first African American to win a PGA Tour event with his win at the Waco Turner Open.

Brown was born in Port Gibson, Mississippi, and grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. He started in golf as a caddy at the municipal course in his hometown. He suffered from non-paralytic polio in the late 1950s but recovered and resumed playing competitive golf.

He turned professional in 1954, winning the Negro National Open consecutively in 1961 and 1962. Brown received his PGA Tour card in 1963. He was not the first African American to obtain his PGA players card; that honor belonged to Charlie Sifford. Brown's victory at the 1964 Waco Turner Open did, however, earn him a place in history as the first African American to win a PGA event. He played on the PGA Tour for 17 years and posted a second tour win at the 1970 Andy Williams-San Diego Open Invitational in a playoff over Tony Jacklin.

Brown played on the Senior PGA Tour (now Champions Tour) beginning in 1985. His best finishes were a pair of T-6s in 1985 at the Senior PGA Tour Roundup and the MONY Syracuse Senior Classic.

In 2021, Brown was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame.

Brown and his wife, Margaret, are the parents of six daughters. He was the head pro at Madden Golf Course in Dayton, Ohio, for more than 20 years. He lived in Evans, Georgia, from 2012 to 2015.

Brown died in Augusta, Georgia, on May 1, 2015, at the age of 80.

John Tout obit

Drummer John Tout Has Died 

He was not on the list.

John Tout, the keyboardist whose playing added a crucial component to Renaissance's sound during the band's most creatively fertile and commercially successful period, has passed away.

The group shared the news on its official Facebook page, posting a message that reads in part, "He was an amazing musician, highly contributing to the unique sound of the band from 1970-1980. He was the quiet (but funny) one in the band, always very caring towards the fans and [a] good friend."

Tout, whose age was not mentioned in the post, died of lung failure on May 1, while he was in the care of doctors at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

When Tout joined, Renaissance were in a state of extreme flux; the band had undergone a complete overhaul from its beginnings as project founded by Yardbirds members Keith Relf and Jim McCarty, and by the end of 1970, no original members remained. But manager Miles Copeland heard potential in the group's new sound, and shepherded them through a revamped (but still constantly shifting) lineup that led to a series of increasingly successful albums throughout the '70s.

"I just played what came naturally, really," Tout later said of the way his distinctive playing enhanced Renaissance's classically inspired sound. "It didn't seem as though it was different to me. I just liked classical music, and the idea of Renaissance originally was to feature so-called classical music and that appealed to me, which is why I joined in the first place. ... It was something I enjoyed, playing classical music. It's funny, really, because I like soul music and I was playing soul music for a long time. I suppose the opportunity to do something a bit different came and I took it and carried on."

Tout left the band in 1980, later explaining that at the time, he was subconsciously "blocking off everything to do with music" because of grief over his sister's passing. "I thought the music had to die as well," he recalled. "I just shut myself away. I didn't do anything at all. ... For 10 years, I didn't do anything at all."

Renaissance folded in 1987, but reunited in 1998 with a lineup that boasted a quartet of returning alumni that included Tout, and although he left the following year, he remained part of the band's circle, joining members sporadically in the studio and onstage. He'd planned to work on a new project with former Renaissance bassist Jon Camp, but declining health, including a heart attack he suffered in 2009, prevented involvement.

"He will always be in our hearts and music," concludes the band's Facebook post. "Please share your thoughts and photos of John."