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In Memoriam: Entertainment Industry Celebrity Deaths


Message added by Mr. Sparkle,

Reminder:

This thread is for deaths of celebrities in the entertainment business only. No notices about politicians, please. 

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1 hour ago, Giant Misfit said:

I enjoyed listening to his radio show in the 80s but no tears for this dead racist. 

If not for his stupid 'nappy-headed-hos' comment, we wouldn't have been saddled with Morning Joke on MSNBC.  

He looked dead even when he was alive.

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15 hours ago, BW Manilowe said:

Damn, he was only 79?  I thought he was 79 twenty years ago.  FWIW, he says he was the pioneer but I grew up in NY at that time listening to AM radio, and Howard Stern was the one who broke out.  Imus only got famous because he started fighting with Stern.  And yes, he was a pig even then.

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35 minutes ago, cynicat said:

Damn, he was only 79?  I thought he was 79 twenty years ago.  FWIW, he says he was the pioneer but I grew up in NY at that time listening to AM radio, and Howard Stern was the one who broke out.  Imus only got famous because he started fighting with Stern.  And yes, he was a pig even then.

The first time/place I can recall Mr. Imus from was when he was VJ for the then new VH1 Channel in which he merely seemed to have been an awkward nerd but with no foul or sinister undertones in his on-air personality. Believe it not, at the very same time, another VH1 VJ was Rosie O'Donnell who, just seemed to be a fun nerd and nothing more. Back then, I imagined that they could have had civil convos with each other  offcamera but, knowing what I've learned about each of them since and how tolerant each was about dissenting POVs, now I somewhat doubt  that could have happened. 

If only he hadn't opened his mouth thereafter  to soil that first impression. . 

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Regarding  Imus- I never actively listened to his show, but you couldn't really miss the outrage after he made his racist rant in '07. He was fired, but back on the air ( though in another format) in like a year, which is sad. Last night one of the cable news channels did a story on him and they played a clip ( that he actually said !) which went something like. "I think I'm the best in radio broadcasting ever, I really believe that. " I'm surprised he actually found a cowboy hat that could actually contain his big head !

 

I didn't know about the camp for kids with cancer that he & his wife ran. I will give him props for that.

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I've always been conflicted about Don Imus.      He did say terrible things, that I'm guessing were supposed to be funny, but weren't.    Then for many years Don and his wife ran the summer program for kids with cancer, and that gave a lot of kids a great experience that they wouldn't have had otherwise.     The radio station, and the TV show did annual fund raising for a SIDS charity, and the ranch that raised millions.    The couple adopted one of the kids too.   

 Then there was the morning he was on the air talking about the fact that the Center for the Intrepid at Fort Sam Houston was millions short of their goal (they raised every penny without government assistance).     Imus went on the air, said that the viewers and sponsors were going to raise the amount needed of the $60 million total, and it happened.   Most of the money came from ordinary people, some from big corporations.     The conditions at the old Walter Reed Army Hospital in D.C. were deplorable, especially for the wounded,  and he was one of the people that publicized the disgraceful conditions, and that did make changes.      

He was truly a complicated person, but he did do some good.    However, that can't make up for the hurt he caused to others with his words.  

(He did look a lot older than 79, but his years of abusing his body with drugs and alcohol really caught up to him.   I know he was always a shock jock, and hired for that reason.    I wonder if some of his inability to recognize when he was going too far, was related to damage from his years of abusing his body and brain.  )

Edited by CrazyInAlabama
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2 hours ago, CrazyInAlabama said:

He was truly a complicated person, but he did do some good.    However, that can't make up for the hurt he caused to others with his words.  

I don’t have an opinion of Imus one way or another. Never really followed him.
His actions affected many people in very important ways. 
 

His words are unacceptable but there appears to be a huge divide between his words and his actions. The actions likely had a huge impact on the physical and emotional well being of many individuals while, no matter how awful, his words were words not actions.

That doesn’t mean his words weren’t hurtful or acceptable by any means and everyone who says things like that should be called out on it.

For me, I would rather be around someone whose words were problematic but whose actions helped those in pain and underserved people than a person who had beautiful, unifying, appropriate things to say all the time who never did any actions to back up their words.

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On 12/28/2019 at 9:05 AM, cynicat said:

Damn, he was only 79?  I thought he was 79 twenty years ago.  FWIW, he says he was the pioneer but I grew up in NY at that time listening to AM radio, and Howard Stern was the one who broke out.  Imus only got famous because he started fighting with Stern.  And yes, he was a pig even then.

Imus actually worked a lot of other places as a shock jock long before Howard Stern came along.  He did his thing in Cleveland for several years in the early '70's and won several Billboard awards for DJ'ing long before Howard Stern started and essentially modeled his show on what Imus had been doing for years.

Neither one of them is my cup of tea, but Howard Stern was not the first of his kind and he owes a lot to Imus for paving the way for his sort of radio schtick.

Edited by doodlebug
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On 12/27/2019 at 2:00 PM, MissAlmond said:

The man who not only produced A Charlie Brown Christmas but whose love of jazz inspired him to hire Vince Guaraldi for the music.  R.I.P. Mr. Mendelson and thank you.  

I think he wanted Dave Brubeck and Brubeck recommended Guaraldi. No question about the legacy of the Peanuts specials and the Christmas music, though. You hear it every year now. R.I.P.

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21 hours ago, doodlebug said:

NBC News did a video tribute to those who died in the past year.

Respect, not only for including soap opera actors from Days and Y&R, but using their show's theme music too.  Primetime In Memoriam tributes don't do that often enough.  

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46 minutes ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

So that’s the first celebrity death of this year.

Maybe I’m splitting hairs, but it’s just the first to be announced. There may be another, or others, which has/have occurred but is/are unannounced for whatever reason.

Edited by BW Manilowe
For rewording.
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1 minute ago, merylinkid said:

That whole thing was messed up.   First Whitney.   Then Bobbi Kristina.   Now Nick Gordon.   All because of drugs.   

I don’t think he ended up in Heaven, but I hope Whitney gave it to him good over Bobbi Kristina when he got there if he somehow happened to. You know what I mean? 

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10 hours ago, merylinkid said:

That whole thing was messed up.   First Whitney.   Then Bobbi Kristina.   Now Nick Gordon.   All because of drugs. 

I believe it goes: Whitney/Bobbi/Friend who was in the house with Nick and Bobbi/Nick. But yeah they all died of drug overdoses.

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I wouldn't be surprised if Mr. Gordon gets a toasty reception afterwards.

If nothing else comes of all this latest tragedy of this epic sad saga, I hope ALL the extended surviving family members of the Gordons, Houstons and Browns become (and stay ) clean and sober if they aren't already so these tragedies will somehow spur good to happen in their wake. 

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16 hours ago, ebk57 said:

And it only gets worse...  Don Larsen died, who pitched the only perfect game in a World Series, died today.

Weird for me...he was the answer to a clue on a crossword I was doing yesterday, and I wondered briefly if he was still alive.

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