Author Topic: Obituaries for 2016  (Read 143383 times)

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Offline Luis Gonzalez

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #750 on: November 27, 2016, 03:09:25 am »
A nice Obit, about what I'd expect from AP.  I disagree about something: While he was consistently anti-American he was also consistently anti-Cubans he didn't like, and while he didn't get away with killing many Americans, he got away with wholesale slaughter of Cubans who disagreed with him.

I'm in no position to judge him, but I'll bet @Luis Gonzalez would agree with me he's gone to a warm place.

May he rest in pieces.
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Offline EasyAce

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #751 on: November 27, 2016, 03:50:31 am »


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline verga

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #752 on: November 27, 2016, 04:35:23 am »
May he rest in pieces.
Has there been an announcement if Obozo or Slow Joe is going tot he funeral?
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Offline Machiavelli

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #753 on: November 29, 2016, 03:11:13 am »
Fritz Weaver, Tony-Winning Character Actor, Dies at 90

Quote
Fritz Weaver, a Tony Award-winning character actor who played a German Jewish doctor slain by the Nazis in the 1978 mini-series “Holocaust” and an Air Force colonel who becomes increasingly unstable as the nation faces a nuclear crisis in the 1964 movie “Fail Safe,” died on Saturday at his home in Manhattan. He was 90...

Mr. Weaver won a Tony in 1970 for his role in Robert Marasco’s drama “Child’s Play,” about the malevolent environment at an exclusive Roman Catholic school for boys...

From the 1950s on, Mr. Weaver was a familiar presence on television shows like “Studio One,” “Playhouse 90,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Murder, She Wrote.”

He appeared in two episodes of “The Twilight Zone” — “The Obsolete Man” and “Third From the Sun,” in which he played a scientist who plots to take his family aboard a rocket to escape their planet before a nuclear war...
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Fritz Weaver Dies; Patrician Star Of Stage And Screen Was 90

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Offline Applewood

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #754 on: November 29, 2016, 03:18:33 am »
Didn't realize Mr. Weaver was a native of Pittsburgh.  A fine actor.  He co-starred with Burgess Meredith  in "The Obsolete Man" episode of the Twilight Zone, one of my favorites. 

Rest in peace.

Offline Machiavelli

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #755 on: November 29, 2016, 03:27:16 am »
Didn't realize Mr. Weaver was a native of Pittsburgh.  A fine actor.  He co-starred with Burgess Meredith  in "The Obsolete Man" episode of the Twilight Zone, one of my favorites. 

Rest in peace.


The Obsolete Man
« Last Edit: November 29, 2016, 03:33:55 am by Machiavelli »

Offline Machiavelli

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #756 on: November 29, 2016, 03:34:32 am »

Offline mountaineer

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #757 on: November 30, 2016, 04:28:02 pm »
The creator of the Big Mac has died.
Quote
Uniontown McDonald’s Franchisee Who Created Big Mac Dies
November 30, 2016 10:25 AM
KDKA


PITTSBURGH (AP) – The Pittsburgh-area McDonald’s franchisee who created the Big Mac nearly 50 years ago has died. Michael “Jim” Delligatti was 98.

McDonald’s spokeswoman Kerry Ford confirmed that Delligatti died at home surrounded by his family on Monday night.

Delligatti’s franchise was based in Uniontown when he invented the chain’s signature burger with two all-beef patties, “special sauce,” lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions on a sesame seed bun.

Delligatti told The Associated Press in 2006 that Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s resisted the idea at first because its simple lineup of hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries and shakes was selling well.

But Delligatti wanted to offer a bigger burger and it went over so well it spread to the rest of Delligatti’s 47 stores, then went national in 1968.
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Offline Machiavelli

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #758 on: November 30, 2016, 05:45:32 pm »
TV Great Grant Tinker Dies, Former CEO Of NBC Was 90

Quote
Grant Tinker, former chairman and CEO of NBC, died on Tuesday, Nov. 29. He was  90.

In 1969, Tinker and his then-wife, actress Mary Tyler Moore, launched MTM Enterprises. The company became an indie powerhouse, producing such popular series as the ground-breaking The Mary Tyler Moore Show, starring Moore, Rhoda, The Bob Newhart Show, WKRP in Cincinnati, Hill Street Blues and St. Elsewhere.

In 1981, Tinker left to become chairman and CEO of  then-last-place network NBC. There, guided by his famous motto “First be best, then be first,” Tinker, with Brandon Tartikoff as his entertainment president, spearheaded a ratings turnaround as NBC rose from last to first place on the strength of a slew of hit and acclaimed new series, including The Cosby Show, Family Ties, The Golden Girls, Cheers, Night Court, and Hill Street Blues. Tinker left NBC in 1986, following its acquisition by General Electric.
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Grant Tinker, TV Executive Who Banked on Quality Shows, Dies at 90

Grant Tinker, Revered Former NBC and MTM Chief, Dies at 90

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Offline EasyAce

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #759 on: November 30, 2016, 07:46:35 pm »
The creator of the Big Mac has died.

I wish him a peaceful rest.

But I'm not exactly sure inventing something else that proves you can hit a jackpot with
crap is something to brag about.


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline EasyAce

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #760 on: November 30, 2016, 07:47:21 pm »
TV Great Grant Tinker Dies, Former CEO Of NBC Was 90
More

Grant Tinker, TV Executive Who Banked on Quality Shows, Dies at 90

Grant Tinker, Revered Former NBC and MTM Chief, Dies at 90

Wikipedia

IMDb

If he'd helped deliver nothing else beside The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the first Bob Newhart Show, Tinker's
place in television history would be secure. RIP.


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline musiclady

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #761 on: November 30, 2016, 07:50:28 pm »
If he'd helped deliver nothing else beside The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the first Bob Newhart Show, Tinker's
place in television history would be secure. RIP.

Indeed!

Hard to surpass those two shows.  They made Tinker a legend.
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Offline EasyAce

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #762 on: November 30, 2016, 07:59:12 pm »
Indeed!

Hard to surpass those two shows.  They made Tinker a legend.

Hard to surpass those two . . . so, naturally, he up and almost did it with Hill Street Blues
and St. Elsewhere.


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline Gefn

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #763 on: December 01, 2016, 12:09:58 pm »
Hard to surpass those two . . . so, naturally, he up and almost did it with Hill Street Blues
and St. Elsewhere.

I think he also came up with the MTM logo with the meowing kitten
« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 12:11:16 pm by Freya »
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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #764 on: December 01, 2016, 01:04:05 pm »
Hard to surpass those two . . . so, naturally, he up and almost did it with Hill Street Blues
and St. Elsewhere.

I know he wasn't a writer on St Elsewhere...but that series  finale was absolute crap.

Offline EasyAce

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #765 on: December 01, 2016, 09:05:36 pm »
I think he also came up with the MTM logo with the meowing kitten

He did. And they used some clever variations on it, too . . .


MTM--"That's All, Folks!"

MTM--The White Shadow

MTM---Newhart
« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 09:10:54 pm by EasyAce »


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline jmyrlefuller

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #766 on: December 02, 2016, 02:47:02 am »
Grant Tinker, the man who cleaned up the huge mess Fred Silverman (who still lives and is about ten years younger) made at NBC.
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Offline musiclady

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #767 on: December 02, 2016, 03:17:48 am »
Hard to surpass those two . . . so, naturally, he up and almost did it with Hill Street Blues
and St. Elsewhere.

Both with AWESOME theme songs!
Character still matters.  It always matters.

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Offline Gefn

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #768 on: December 02, 2016, 09:46:31 pm »
The Chinese creator of General Tso's Chicken, chef Peng, has died at the age of 98.

http://qz.com/851591/the-chinese-creator-of-general-tsos-chicken-chef-peng-has-died-at-the-age-of-98/
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Offline EasyAce

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #769 on: December 05, 2016, 10:33:19 pm »
RIP to television's Green Hornet---whom I liked not just because of his style, but because
he was the only crimefighter I knew in my boyhood (I didn't discover the classic earlier
radio show for decades to come) who didn't run around in his underwear to fight crime . . .

Quote
Green Hornet star Van Williams dies at 82

Actor Van Williams, star of The Green Hornet television series of the 1960s, died last week at the age of 82.

Actor and Williams' friend Pat Priest confirmed Williams' death to Variety after receiving an email about his death from Williams' wife, Vicki Flaxman.

“Sad news. Van passed away last Monday night,” Flaxman wrote. “He really fought hard, but he had more health issues than he could manage. I am heartbroken.”

Producer Kevin Burns also revealed the news on Facebook after receiving the same email.

Williams was discovered while working as a driving instructor in Hawaii in 1957. Producer Mike Todd, husband of Elizabeth Taylor at the time, convinced Williams to give acting a shot, and so Williams moved to Hollywood. He broke in with the role of Ken Medison on Bourbon Street Beat on ABC. He reprised the role for Surfside 6.

Williams is best known to superhero fans for playing Britt Reid, aka the Green Hornet, on the 1966 television series. He was joined by Bruce Lee as the Green Hornet's sidekick and martial artist Kato. The Green Hornet was produced by 20th Century Fox and crossed over with Fox's other hit superhero series, Batman.

Williams career led him to roles on other classic television shows, including The Beverly Hillbillies, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Westwind.

After his acting career seemed to have run its course, Williams became a reserve deputy sheriff and firefighter in the Los Angeles area.

“We had many fun dinners around our dining room table,” Priest told Variety. “We laughed a lot and he was my mentor in helping me with memorabilia shows. He was very special. We saw him last year and we have wonderful memories.”

According to Priest, Williams was in poor health before his death. He had singed his lungs as a firefighter and had suffered from bronchial problems and back pain ever since.

“Through it all he remained strong and rarely spoke of what he went through. He was a great guy and a class act all the way,” Burns said in his Facebook post.



The Green Hornet---more style and class than your average crimefighting fiction hero.

And he had a classier ride . . .



RIP Van Williams.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2016, 10:33:50 pm by EasyAce »


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline Gefn

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #770 on: December 05, 2016, 10:35:46 pm »
Wow. Interesting. It also mentions the actress Pat Priest who was one of the women who was Marilyn Munster.
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Offline EasyAce

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #771 on: December 05, 2016, 10:48:43 pm »
Wow. Interesting. It also mentions the actress Pat Priest who was one of the women who was Marilyn Munster.

Apparently, Pat Priest was a lifelong friend of Williams and his wife.

Reasons why the Green Hornet was better than Batman:

* He was born in old-time radio, not the comics.
* He dressed for success, not in his underwear.
* He had a more useful sidekick.
* And a classier ride.
* He didn't have to wear a phony utility belt with comic-opera weapons---all he needed was a gas gun
   and an expandable telescoping laser sting.
* He invented the drone. (The Black Beauty scanner was the great-grandpa of today's remote control drones.)
* He fought real criminals, not clowns with theme crimes, bad makeup, worse puns, and wastes of some of
   Hollywood's most legendary talent. (If there was justice, Vincent Price would have sued for defamation of
   character for being paid to play Egghead.)
* And while we're at it, he didn't flinch when infiltrating the criminals' operations; Batman would have run home to mommy at the
   very idea of it.
* Britt Reid at least worked for a living---he turned his father's inheritance into an even more successful newspaper.
* And he didn't live in an oversize mansion spending most of his time in two rooms.
* He also didn't have to figure out how to change clothes sliding down a fire pole to a cave.
* He dated better-looking women than Bruce Wayne.
* And probably got more second, third, fourth, and fifth dates.
* He had the D.A. on his side. The best Batman could do was a police commissioner who probably had no business in the job.
* The Black Beauty's front-and-rear rockets could get the job done faster than the Batbeam.
* The Batmobile looked better as the concept car from which it was built:



* The Black Beauty looked better than the Imperial Crown Sedan from which it was built.
* The Green Hornet didn't have to bust every speed limit in town to get the job done; hell, he had enough trouble
   with the cops thinking he was a murderer because of the nature of his operation.
* And he didn't have to have cameras at weird angles to show him climbing walls he couldn't climb in the first place.
* Do you really think Batman would have had the cojones to kidnap a foreign head of state to save his and his
   fiancee's life?
* Kato was a more useful domestic servant than Alfred ever was.
* The Green Hornet was the grand nephew of the Lone Ranger. (Quick---name one of Batman's legendary relatives. I
   couldn't, either.
* And the Green Hornet otherwise kept his carping, harpie, harridan relatives out of the house. (If he had
   an Aunt Harriet worming her way into living in his pad, he'd have turned the Hornet Sting on her without regret, and
   no jury on earth would have ruled it unjustifiable.)

So there! ;)
« Last Edit: December 05, 2016, 11:07:17 pm by EasyAce »


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #772 on: December 05, 2016, 11:07:52 pm »
Quote
After his acting career seemed to have run its course, Williams became a reserve deputy sheriff and firefighter in the Los Angeles area.

Now, that's real class. Nowadays, they turn to drugs and whine when their acting run is over.

RIP, Mr. Williams, and thanks.
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Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

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Offline EasyAce

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #773 on: December 05, 2016, 11:36:53 pm »
Now, that's real class. Nowadays, they turn to drugs and whine when their acting run is over.

RIP, Mr. Williams, and thanks.

You'd have to figure a guy discovered by accident while working as a driving instructor and
catching a break almost the same way when he gave acting a try wasn't going to let it get
to his head. Van Williams always impressed me as the down to earth sort who never got
full of himself.

Williams did once say he thought The Green Hornet should have lasted more than one
season---he told the interviewer, if I remember right, that if they'd made the show an hour
and focused more on character development, his own, the supporting players (Bruce Lee
as Kato---the old radio series portrayed him as both a valet and a chemist whose knowledge
of the science was invaluable in their operation---Wende Wagner as Miss Case [she went
from secretary to reporter in the old radio series], Lloyd Gough as Mike Axford, Walter Shenson
as D.A. Frank Scanlan), and even the criminals he battled, the show might have survived.
The show got good ratings in its only television season but looking back on the episodes
now you'd be hard pressed to say Williams was wrong.


"The question of who is right is a small one, indeed, beside the question of what is right."---Albert Jay Nock.

Fake news---news you don't like or don't want to hear.

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Obituaries for 2016
« Reply #774 on: December 06, 2016, 12:18:33 am »
You'd have to figure a guy discovered by accident while working as a driving instructor and
catching a break almost the same way when he gave acting a try wasn't going to let it get
to his head. Van Williams always impressed me as the down to earth sort who never got
full of himself.

Williams did once say he thought The Green Hornet should have lasted more than one
season---he told the interviewer, if I remember right, that if they'd made the show an hour
and focused more on character development, his own, the supporting players (Bruce Lee
as Kato---the old radio series portrayed him as both a valet and a chemist whose knowledge
of the science was invaluable in their operation---Wende Wagner as Miss Case [she went
from secretary to reporter in the old radio series], Lloyd Gough as Mike Axford, Walter Shenson
as D.A. Frank Scanlan), and even the criminals he battled, the show might have survived.
The show got good ratings in its only television season but looking back on the episodes
now you'd be hard pressed to say Williams was wrong.
Likely, Williams saw it as a neat opportunity, but wasn't banking on it as a career. After all, he had done other things for a living. You may well be right about the show. Nowadays would have had a different result (especially when you consider the multiple seasons of killing zombies out there).

 I really hated what the recent (2011) movie did to the character, but I hear a reboot is in the works.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis