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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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I had no idea she was still alive.  La Marseillaise is my favorite scene in the movie (which is full of amazing scenes) because I love watching it drown out the Nazis.  If found her close ups to be very moving even before learning that she (and many of the extras singing along) had fled Nazi occupied France.  That knowledge just brings out the tears every time I watch it.

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Another figure in Beatles history has passed as well, publicist Tony Barrow, "who gave up his career as a journalist and music critic to become the Beatles’ first publicist in 1962, and who for the next six years played a crucial role in shaping the public’s perception of the Fab Four — a nickname he coined..."

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Jane Little, who holds the world record for longest-serving orchestra musician, died as she lived: playing the bass in a concert by the Atlanta Symphony. You read that correctly. She collapsed and died during the concert (playing "There's No Business Like Show Business," no less!). She was 87, and had been a member of the orchestra since she was 16 -- 71 years!

I want to be Jane Little when (if) I grow up!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/05/16/what-an-amazing-way-to-go-bassist-jane-little-worlds-longest-serving-orchestra-musician-dead-at-87-after-collapsing-while-performing/

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Alan Young may be best known to many of us born after 1978 as the voice of Scrooge McDuck on DuckTales.  He did the voice for the update of the classic Capcom DuckTales game a year or so ago.

RIP

Edited by junemeatcleaver
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He was also in both the 1960 The Time Machine (one of my favorite movies to this day) and the 2002 reboot (which wasn't nearly as good, believe me -- but neither of them could really hold a candle to the H.G. Wells novel in any event!).

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55 minutes ago, junemeatcleaver said:

Alan Young may be best known to many of us born after 1978 as the voice of Scrooge McDuck on DuckTales.  He did the voice for the update of the classic Capcom DuckTales game a year or so ago.

RIP

I did NOT know that before! Now I'm really bummed! Goodbye Uncle Scrooge!

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4 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

Another part of my childhood is gone:  http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/alan-young-dead-dies-mister-ed-1201779957/

Mister Ed debuted the year I was born (1961), so it is one of the first TV shows that I can remember watching as a child.  Thank you and RIP, Mr. Young!  :(

Word. Only for me it was Ducktales. I saw him in some reruns of Mister Ed, but it was as Scrooge McDuck that I remember him as the most. RIP Mr. Young and thanks for the memories.

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3 hours ago, junemeatcleaver said:

Alan Young may be best known to many of us born after 1978 as the voice of Scrooge McDuck on DuckTales.  He did the voice for the update of the classic Capcom DuckTales game a year or so ago.

RIP

I have that game on my Wii U and it's so worth getting. It's really fun. Glad he did the voice for it.

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(edited)

Mr. Kwouk was also quite good as Entwistle in "Last of the Summer Wine"- despite him being a somewhat stereotypical character who spoke in heavily accented English but was nonetheless a vital part of the 'trio' of Yorkshire denizens of that   show.  Ironically, Mr. Kwouk had actually been born in Lancashire   with English as his first language. RIP, Entwistle

Edited by Blergh
correcting info
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I always wondered why Kwouk didn't work more, but I guess he did and we just didn't see most of his work in the US because of his UK base.

He had one of those faces though that you'd definitely recognize when it did pop up. I remember his quite clearly in You Only Live Twice, for example, even though it was a bit role.

Edited by Kromm
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Jim Dial was married to Vera the waitress?! I have to process this.

Okay, RIP after a long delay then. I always liked her character and felt bad when Mel yelled at her. The image of her trying to open the box of straws and them exploding everywhere is a memory from childhood.

Also RIP to Burt Kwouk, who as Kato, helped sharpen Clouseau's reflexes. He was also in two Bond movies Goldfinger as a Chinese nuclear scientist and You Only Live Twice as the guy giving the countdown in Blofeld's volcano rocket base.

Edited by VCRTracking
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51 minutes ago, Inquisitionist said:

From the Hollywood ReporterBeth Howland, Who Played Vera on 'Alice,' Dies at 74

 

ETA:  Her husband, actor Charles Kimbrough, said Howland died on Dec. 31, 2015, but an announcement was delayed per her request.  Kimbrough played Jim Dial on Murphy Brown.

 

It says -

"Her husband, actor Charles Kimbrough (Murphy Brown), told the Associated Press that Howland died of lung cancer in Santa Monica on Dec. 31. He said there was no funeral or memorial service and "that was her choice."

It doesn't say announcing her death at a later date was her request.  

She was not that famous at the time of her death to register with the media is my guess. 

Edited by wings707
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That was from another source.  For example, the NYTimes obit of today says:

Quote

Beth Howland, who made high anxiety an art form as the ditsy, accident-prone waitress Vera Louise Gorman on the 1970s and ’80s sitcom “Alice,” died on Dec. 31, 2015, in Santa Monica, Calif., her husband said on Tuesday. He had refrained from announcing her death earlier in keeping with her wishes. She was 74.

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Why would you delay a death announcement 5 months?   Unless you wanted to rush probate through quickly.    How do we know it was her wishes?   She's dead, she can't verify it.    

RIP Vera.   

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4 minutes ago, merylinkid said:

Why would you delay a death announcement 5 months?   Unless you wanted to rush probate through quickly.    How do we know it was her wishes?   She's dead, she can't verify it.   

She and Kimbrough were married since 2002.  Do you have any reason to think he'd make this up?  Howland also had a daughter born in the 1960s who doesn't appear to have spoken up any sooner.  Just sounds like an interesting personality quirk to me.  YMMV.

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I don't find it odd that she wanted to have the announcement delayed for reasons the public doesn't need to know and that her husband honored her request.

The first reason that comes to mind is to foil any deadbeat relatives who might crawl out of the woodwork to harass the family trying to get a piece of her estate.

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How sad. Her character Vera was weird in the beginning of the show (like in the movie), but once the show found it's footing, she was a hoot. She was a great actress. I found her other roles very un-Vera like.

Another passing that was announced is romance novelist Jo Beverley. I haven't read romance in quite a while, but I think I'll pull out one of her books.

Edited by Snow Apple
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3 hours ago, wings707 said:

 

It says -

"Her husband, actor Charles Kimbrough (Murphy Brown), told the Associated Press that Howland died of lung cancer in Santa Monica on Dec. 31. He said there was no funeral or memorial service and "that was her choice."

It doesn't say announcing her death at a later date was her request.  

She was not that famous at the time of her death to register with the media is my guess. 

 

Christine Cavanaugh (a voice actress--she did the voice of Chuckie on Rugrats) died at the end of 2014, and her death wasn't announced for, I think two weeks. That I could get in terms of a delay of coverage (especially since she basically was finished with show business once she left Rugrats), but five months to announce the death of an actress of a long running 70's/80's sitcom? That's just a weirdly long delay, unless she did, in fact, say to wait a few months for whatever reason. Because there are plenty of celebrities who have been out of the spotlight for a long while who get a death announcement almost immediately after they die. 

Edited by UYI
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2 hours ago, merylinkid said:

Why would you delay a death announcement 5 months?   Unless you wanted to rush probate through quickly.    How do we know it was her wishes?   She's dead, she can't verify it.

Exactly.

A famous woman's death is withheld for 6 months and the only verifiable information all leads back to one person, the husband.

This would make a reporter of Murphy Brown's character immediately suspicious.

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It doesn't actually say that he announced it, did he?  Perfectly natural for her to say "I don't want a funeral or an obit" and the family to respect that, but to confirm the death when people ask months later.  I just assume the AP got wind of it somehow, contacted him, and he told the truth. Yes, she died. In December.  We didn't announce it because that was her wish.  

Doesn't mean she asked him to announce it 5 months later, nor that he did.

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(edited)
Quote

Christine Cavanaugh (a voice actress--she did the voice of Chuckie on Rugrats) died at the end of 2014, and her death wasn't announced for, I think two weeks.

No, her family placed an obituary in the paper right after like the families of "regular people."  It took the entertainment media two or three weeks to come across it and realize it was the Christine Cavanaugh who used to be in the business, and then they reported it.

Edited by Bastet
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25 minutes ago, Bastet said:

No, her family placed an obituary in the paper right after like the families of "regular people."  It took the entertainment media two or three weeks to come across it and realize it was the Christine Cavanaugh who used to be in the business, and then they reported it.

Oh, okay, I can see how that happened. Thanks. 

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Chris Noth's mum, Jeanne Parr, a news reporter for channel 2 in NYC, died May 20, at the age of 92.  Here she is as a panelist on What's My Line, in 1966.  Dorothy Kilgallen was deceased by then:

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