Tag Archives: obituary

The New York Times has the obit: Patti Page, the apple-cheeked, honey-voiced alto whose sentimental, soothing, sometimes silly hits like “Tennessee Waltz,” “Old Cape Cod” and “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?” made her one of the most successful pop singers of the 1950s, died on Tuesday in Encinitas, Calif. She was 85. Ms. Page had briefly been …

Motown-era pop star Fontella Bass died of heart disease on Wednesday at the age of 72. After some early recordings with Little Milton’s Bobbin label in St. Louis, she joined Chess and released her first records on its Checker subsidiary in early 1965. The first two, “Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing” and “You’ll Miss Me (When I’m Gone),” duets …

Retired four-star Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf has died at the age of 78. A U.S. official says retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, who commanded the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Saddam Hussein’s forces out of Kuwait in 1991, has died. He was 78.  The official tells The Associated Press that Schwarzkopf died Thursday in Tampa, Fla. The official wasn’t authorized to …

Click over to Billboard for their photo essay on this year’s passings in the pop music world.  Donna Summer, Whitney Houston, Adam Yauch, Don Cornelius, Davy Jones, Robin Gibb, Etta James, Dick Clark…and on and on. I can’t remember the last time so many huge names died in the same year.

Actor Jack Klugman has died at the age of 90. The prolific, craggy-faced character actor and regular guy who was loved by millions as the messy one in TV’s The Odd Couple and the crime-fighting coroner in Quincy, M.E., died on Christmas Eve, his son said. He was 90. Klugman, who lost his voice to throat cancer in the 1980s …

Groundbreaking AIDS activist Spencer Cox, who was profiled in the documentary How To Stop A Plague, has died of HIV-related complications at the age of 44. Cox is widely credited with helping create the drug testing protocols that rushed life-saving medications to a desperate community.  ACT UP sends us his obituary: From 1994 to 1999, he was Director of the …

Rejected Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork has died at the age of 85. The cause was pulmonary disease. Bork was among the most polarizing figures in American law and conservative politics for more than four decades. When Bork was solicitor general in 1973, he fired Archibald Cox as a special prosecutor on the order of President Richard Nixon to help …

Nine-term Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye has died at the age of 88. “His last words were, ‘Aloha,'” his office said. Inouye died at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, with his wife, Irene, and his son, Ken, at his side. Last rites were performed by Senate Chaplain Dr. Barry Black, his office said. A senator since 1963, Inouye in 2009 …

Details.

Here’s this year’s Hollywood obituary reel.

Legendary sitar player and Beatles collaborator Ravi Shankar has died at the age of 92. Labeled “the godfather of world music” by George Harrison, Shankar helped millions of classical, jazz and rock lovers discover the centuries-old traditions of Indian music. He also pioneered the concept of the rock benefit with the 1971 Concert For Bangladesh. To later generations, he was …

Actor Larry Hagman died yesterday at the age of 81. Hagman was at Medical City Dallas Hospital when he died Friday afternoon from complications of his recent battle with cancer, the Dallas Morning News reported, citing members of his family. Despite his fragile health, the actor had returned to Texas from his home in California to film season one of …

Liberal icon George McGovern has died in his home state of South Dakota at the age of 90.  McGovern is perhaps best remembered for his vehement opposition to the Vietnam War. A three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, McGovern won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. His hard-fought campaign against Nixon and the war in Southeast Asia attracted millions of …

Longtime Republican, recently turned Democrat, and friend to the LGBT community, former Sen. Arlen Specter has died at the age of 82. One of the few remaining Republican moderates on Capitol Hill at a time when the party had turned sharply to the right, Mr. Specter confounded fellow Republicans at every turn. He unabashedly supported Roe v. Wade, the Supreme …

Former pro footballer Alex Karras, whose gay bodyguard character in Victor/Victoria endeared him to gay audiences, has died at the age of 77. Alex Karras, a fierce and relentless All-Pro lineman for the Detroit Lions whose irrepressible character placed him frequently at odds with football’s authorities but led to a second career as an actor on television and in the …

The American Military Partner Association makes a grim announcement on its Facebook page: In memory of Army Staff Sgt. Donna R. Johnson who gave the ultimate sacrifice to our nation in a suicide bomber attack while on patrol in Afghanistan, on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012. Staff Sgt Johnson is survived by her wife Tracy Dice. In days to come, the …

RuPaul’s Drag Race contestant, pop singer, and actor Sahara Davenport has apparently died at the age of 27. Nothing is yet known about the circumstances, but condolences are flooding Twitter from her former castmates.  I interviewed Davenport during that season’s finals and came away quite charmed.  Davenport was romantically involved with RuPaul’s Drag Race castmate Manila Luzon.

Lifelong wingnut and multiple Grammy nominee Andy Williams has died at the age of 84.  Over a career spanning six decades Williams scored dozens of Top 40 hits and 17 gold or platinum albums.  The song most-associated with Williams, Moon River, was not released as a single. With a string of gold albums, a hit TV series and the signature …

Actor Michael Clarke Duncan, 54, died today in Los Angeles after suffering a heart attack. Duncan had a handful of minor roles before “The Green Mile” brought him an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor. The 1999 film, based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, starred Tom Hanks as a corrections officer at a penitentiary in …

Hal David, the legendary songwriting partner of Burt Bacharach, has died at the age of 91. David died of complications from a stroke Saturday morning in Los Angeles, according to Jim Steinblatt, spokesman for the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. David was a longtime member and former president of ASCAP. Bacharach and David wrote many top 40 hits …