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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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As other posters have said, Sam Shepard was not only a brilliant writer & a great actor, he was one of the hottest men in the world. Rumor has it that Ralph Lauren, the fashion designer, wanted Shepard to be one of his models, but he refused.

 Shepard could have coasted on his looks, but he let his talent do the talking, which made him even sexier.

RIP, Sam.

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17 hours ago, bmasters9 said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ty_Hardin

Ty Hardin, known for being Bronco Layne on the 1958-62 ABC Western Bronco, has passed on at 87. 

He was married eight times-the same number of times as Mickey Rooney! Can we hope Mr. Hardin's exes got more from their times with him than Mr. Rooney's seemed to have? I'll leave it at that! One can't say he'd had a dull life. RIP, Mr. Hardin.

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7 minutes ago, Angeltoes said:

Although at times he was far from the easiest person to get along with those who knew him, he DID make some outstanding contributions to the music scene and even had some good comedic chops when he pressed to do that. Hopefully, he's in a place where his music and memory have been restored. RIP, Mr. Campbell!

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I"m glad his suffering is over, and that he didn't have years and years to live with the disease.

Not a country music fan, but I love 'Wichita Lineman'.  And yes, @Blergh , he made some lasting contributions.

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I never listened to Glen Campbell's music beyond what was on the radio, but I liked his voice a lot, and I liked those singles -- Wichita Lineman, Galveston, Rhinestone Cowboy, Southern Nights.

The I'll Be Me documentary that came out a few years ago about him and his family coping as the dementia began to progress was well done (which, of course, means it was painful to watch sometimes). 

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Glen Campbell's death is heartbreaking. As someone who has lost a loved one to Alzheimer's, devastating doesn't even begin to describe its impact on the victims and their families.

  It's even worse when one of the victims was as talented as Glen Campbell. He was not only a great singer/songwriter, he acted too. Campbell even held his own with John Wayne in the original True Grit.

RIP, Mr. Campbell. I believe that you are where the lights are shining on you.

Fuck Alzheimer's.

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That's a neat tweet, VCRTracking. Thanks for sharing that. Proof music doesn't always need all the whistles and bells to be powerful. 

Very sad to hear of his passing. We just keep on losing the great ones. Condolences to his family and friends. 

And I'll echo the "fuck Alzheimer's" comments. Truly a heartbreaking disease. 

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Behind The Song: “Wichita Lineman”

Excerpt:
 

Quote

 

So even though it was written specifically for Glen, he still wanted it to be a ‘character’ song?

“Well, I didn’t want it to be about a rich guy!” he(Jimmy Webb) laughs. “I wanted it to be about an ordinary fellow. Billy Joel came pretty close one time when he said ‘Wichita Lineman’ is ‘a simple song about an ordinary man thinking extraordinary thoughts.’ That got to me; it actually brought tears to my eyes. I had never really told anybody how close to the truth that was.

“What I was really trying to say was, you can see someone working in construction or working in a field, a migrant worker or a truck driver, and you may think you know what’s going on inside him, but you don’t. You can’t assume that just because someone’s in a menial job that they don’t have dreams … or extraordinary concepts going around in their head, like ‘I need you more than want you; and I want you for all time.’ You can’t assume that a man isn’t a poet. And that’s really what the song is about.”

He wasn’t certain they would go for it. “In fact, I thought they hadn’t gone for it,” he says. “They kept calling me back every couple of hours and asking if it was finished. I really didn’t have the last verse written. And finally I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna send it over, and if you want me to finish it, I’ll finish it.’

 

 

Glen Campbell's Wichita Lineman: The unfinished song that became a classic

Excerpt:
 

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"We knew that this tune was special," said bassist Carole Kaye - who added the descending six-note intro.

"When he started singing, the hair stood up on my arms and I went, 'Woah, this is deep'."

Musically, the song plays a clever trick by starting in the key of F major before switching to the relative minor, D major and never fully resolving - echoing the lineman's disjointed state of mind.

DeLory wrote an evocative orchestral arrangement in which the strings mimicked the sighing of the telephone wires. To get around the problem of the unfinished third verse, Campbell picked up Kaye's DanElectro six-string bass guitar and improvised the song's famous solo.

Webb, however, thought they'd rejected the song.

"A couple of weeks later I ran into him [Glen Campbell] somewhere, and I said, 'I guess you guys didn't like the song.'" he recalled.

"He said, 'Oh, we cut that'. I said, 'It wasn't done! I was just humming the last bit!'"

"He said, 'Well it's done now!'"

 

Edited by VCRTracking
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I need you more than want you; and I want you for all time.

That's my very favorite romantic / sappy / goopy lyric ever.

I first truly paid attention to the song when it was covered by REM; I was a little young for Glen's initial release.  But once I heard the original, that became the true version to me. The only real version.

RIP.

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Coincidentally, yesterday I went to a lecture by someone from our local Alzheimer's Association.  They are seeing some great progress in clinical trials. I asked about their funding and was told they are totally funded by donations and grants - no government money.

I've been making a yearly donation to the Pat Summitt Foundation (I live near Knoxville, home of the Lady Vols; Pat Summitt died of early onset Alzheimer's), but today I'm going to make a donation to the Alzheimer's Association in memory of Glen Campbell.

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That's wonderful news about the clinical trials. I've heard about some of the things people have been doing that have proven beneficial to Alzheimer's patients. It'd be so great if we can make this a significantly easier disease to treat, and eventually find a cure. 

I'll have to look into donating, too. 

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4 hours ago, Ohwell said:

That's my favorite song of his, followed by "By the Time I Get to Phoenix."

That song always makes me think of just how fast he must have been driving to get the hell away from the woman he left.  By the time he hits Phoenix (in Arizona), she's just getting up and finding his "Dear Jane" letter to her and laughing it off; by the time he gets to Albuquerque (in New Mexico), she's at work and decides to call him on her break only to hear the phone ring "off the wall"; and by the time he's in Oklahoma, she's crying herself to sleep because it's finally hit her that he's really left her for good.  He goes from Arizona to Oklahoma (after probably starting closer to the California border, if not actually from somewhere in California itself) in something like just 18 hours?  That's some pretty fast driving, unless he flew part of the way!

Edited by legaleagle53
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Years ago, VH1 had a series called "Behind the Music," and Glen was featured in one of the episodes. The segment on his relationship with Tanya was funny, because Glen was clearly still angry and would only refer to her as "Tucker." Tucker did this, Tucker did that. So, while Tanya may have found a pair of rose-colored nostalgic glasses, I'm not sure Glen would return that feeling. 

Some relationships bring out the worst in the parties involved, and I suspect this was one of them. 

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Quote

He goes from Arizona to Oklahoma (after probably starting closer to the California border, if not actually from somewhere in California itself) in something like just 18 hours?  That's some pretty fast driving, unless he flew part of the way!

Google says it's a 15-hour drive, so I think it works. If he's outside Phoenix at dawn when she's rising, and then in Oklahoma when she goes to bed, that's about right. But it's a long day behind the wheel!

Edited by ennui
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15 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

That song always makes me think of just how fast he must have been driving to get the hell away from the woman he left.  By the time he hits Phoenix (in Arizona), she's just getting up and finding his "Dear Jane" letter to her and laughing it off; by the time he gets to Albuquerque (in New Mexico), she's at work and decides to call him on her break only to hear the phone ring "off the wall"; and by the time he's in Oklahoma, she's crying herself to sleep because it's finally hit her that he's really left her for good.  He goes from Arizona to Oklahoma (after probably starting closer to the California border, if not actually from somewhere in California itself) in something like just 18 hours?  That's some pretty fast driving, unless he flew part of the way!

You think too much.  It's just a song. ; )

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I love Gentle on my mind, Wichita Lineman, Phoenix etc.  but the Glen Campbell/Jimmy Webb song that always punches me in the gut is Galveston - of all the sad  Vietnam war songs that's the one that makes me the saddest. I went to more than one soldier's funeral in the early seventies where they played it and it always made me cry.

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His last song I'm Not Gonna Miss You about being diagnosed with Alzheimers is devastating. 

 

9 hours ago, ennui said:

ome relationships bring out the worst in the parties involved, and I suspect this was one of them. 

The drugs and alcohol they were both doing probably didn't help matters.

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1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

His last song I'm Not Gonna Miss You about being diagnosed with Alzheimers is devastating. 

That closes out the I'll Be Me documentary, as one final punch to the gut.  "I'm still here, but yet I'm gone" sets the tone, and then the final verse:

I'm never gonna know what you go through
All the things I say or do
All the hurt and all the pain
One thing selfishly remains

I'm not gonna miss you
I'm not gonna miss you

Here's an old Rolling Stone article that includes the video; I just cried my way through it again.

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On 09/08/2017 at 11:01 AM, DollEyes said:

Glen Campbell's death is heartbreaking. As someone who has lost a loved one to Alzheimer's, devastating doesn't even begin to describe its impact on the victims and their families...

Fuck Alzheimer's.

Whole heartedly agreed on all counts. I hope that Mr. Campbell's death will increase donations to Alzheimer's charities, for whatever reason it is almost an orphan disease in terms of government funding which is complete bullshit considering how common, and how devastating AD is. My mum's family has long history of AD,  my great grandfather was already sick when I was born and died when I was seven and my grandmother developed it in 1998 and died from it in 2012. It's impact on my family has played a significant role in shaping the first three decades of my life. 

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9 hours ago, Jac said:

Whole heartedly agreed on all counts. I hope that Mr. Campbell's death will increase donations to Alzheimer's charities, for whatever reason it is almost an orphan disease in terms of government funding which is complete bullshit considering how common, and how devastating AD is. My mum's family has long history of AD,  my great grandfather was already sick when I was born and died when I was seven and my grandmother developed it in 1998 and died from it in 2012. It's impact on my family has played a significant role in shaping the first three decades of my life. 

You should get tested.  There's apparently a test that can tell if you have the genetic markers.  Is there a way to slow the disease?

I thank God that I've never had to deal with the disease.  But I am glad that Glen Campbell has passed, because now his &'his family's suffering is over, and he didn't linger for a long time like your grandmother or Reagan.

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On 8/10/2017 at 8:31 PM, biakbiak said:
On 8/10/2017 at 10:57 AM, ennui said:

ome relationships bring out the worst in the parties involved, and I suspect this was one of them. 

The drugs and alcohol they were both doing probably didn't help matters.

True.  My Dad and I enjoyed Glen Campbell as a performer (plus, it's great to hear some of the songs he played on during his Wrecking Crew days like Ricky Nelson's "Hello Mary Lou" and The Monkees' "Mary Mary").  

I'm reminded of a story my dad told about him.  One day while watching him in an interview (when he and his children were preparing for the final tour)  my father pointed at Campbell and said he was wearing a partial in his upper mouth.  I asked how did he know and he said he knew of an incident at a bar when Campbell was in NYC many decades ago.  He got drunk and when NYPD was called, he was asked to leave the bar, but he got angry and pulled the "Do you know who I am" line.  Eventually he took a swing at them and one of them clocked him hard and knocked out a couple of teeth.  He'd been wearing the partial ever since.

 

Despite his fiery temperment, Campbell always had that gentleness in his singing voice, which was one of the reasons he lasted so long in the business.

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33 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

Joseph Bologna of "My Favorite Year" and "The Woman in Red," dead at 82.

Aw, he and Renee Taylor just celebrated their 52nd anniversary on Friday.  The last part of that tidbit, from the linked obit, gave me a chuckle:  "They celebrated their 52nd anniversary on Friday and renewed their vows five times — in a different religion on each occasion."

I liked their collaborations, particularly Made For Each Other.

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