Tag Archives: obituary

Gay icon and perhaps the most beloved grandmother character in television history, Estelle “Sophia Petrillo” Getty died this morning at age 84 after suffering through several years of dementia. From her website today: To all of Estelle’s Fans, Sadly, today July 22, 2008 at 5:35 a.m. Pacific Time, we said our last good-byes to our little friend Estelle, who passed …

Renowned circuit party DJ Cary Stringfellow was found dead on Saturday after he failed to appear for his headlining performance at California’s IndepenDance party in Long Beach. Last weekend Stringfellow headlined at San Francisco Pride’s Saturday night event, Frisco Disco. I’m told that Stringfellow committed suicide and left a note.

Former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC), the most notoriously racist and homophobic politician in the history of the United States, has died at the age of 86. Happy Independence Day!!! And now for some choice quotes from DEAD Jesse Helms, the greatest embarrassment to my home state of North Carolina and the nation: – On threatening the life of a sitting …

Noted psychotherapist and writer Michael Shernoff, who authored numerous books on gay culture and HIV/AIDS, has died of pancreatic cancer at 57. In his practice and in his writing, Mr. Shernoff confronted the realities of homosexual life with bluntness and compassion. In essays and books and as a mental health columnist for the Web site TheBody.com, he cast a sympathetic …

Breaking news: Tim Russert, NBC News’ Washington bureau chief and the moderator of “Meet the Press,” died Friday after a sudden heart attack at the bureau, NBC News said Friday. He was 58. Russert was recording voiceovers for Sunday’s “Meet the Press” program when he collapsed, the network said. He and his family had recently returned from Italy, where they …

Mildred Loving, the black woman whose fight against Virginia’s ban on interracial marriage led to the Supreme Court overturning all such laws nationwide, has died at age 68. Loving’s cause of death was not disclosed. Loving and her white husband, Richard, changed history in 1967 when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld their right to marry. The ruling struck down laws …

By now you’ve surely heard that Charleton Heston died this weekend at age 83. Probably like most of you, I was a huge fan of Heston’s acting work (particularly Planet Of The Apes and Omega Man), but loathed some of the man’s politics. Heston marched on DC with MLK in 1963, but was occasionally less charitable towards gays. Here’s a …

Beloved South Florida gay bar owner and AIDS activist Michael Brown, 50, was found murdered in his West Palm Beach home on Friday. Brown’s presumed killer, Brant Hines, 27, stayed in Brown’s home for two days after the murder before hanging himself on a bedroom door. Brown and Hines had had a turbulent off and on relationship for several years. …

Science fiction legend, the world’s most famous futurologist, and gay man Sir Arthur C. Clarke has died at the age of 90 in Sri Lanka, his adopted home for the last 50 years. I began devouring Clarke’s novels at the age of 12 when a friend pointed out that the spacey lyrics of David Bowie’s 1971 song Oh! You Pretty …

Blustery blowhard pleonastic conservative commentator and National Review founder William F. Buckley has died of natural causes at age 82. Buckley suffered from diabetes and emphysema and was found slumped at his desk, presumably working on another column railing against the moral decay of America. I’ll best remember Buckley for this quote: “Everyone detected with AIDS should be tattooed in …

A sad update to the California shooting: A 15-year-old boy who was shot in the head at school died Wednesday, a police spokesman said. Eighth-grader Lawrence King, who was shot Tuesday during a class at E.O. Green Junior High, died at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, David Keith said. An unidentified 14-year-old classmate arrested near the school after the shooting …

Actor Heath Ledger, 28, was found dead in his New York City apartment today. His body was found in his Soho home by a housekeeper at 3:30pm. According to police, pills were found near the body. Suicide or overdose is suspected. Ledger won raves in 2005 for his portrayal of a closeted cowboy in Brokeback Mountain, for which he earned …

Suzanne Pleshette died yesterday at age 70. While you may most fondly remember her from The Bob Newhart Show, my favorite Pleshette role will always be her part as the icy yet fragile Bodega Bay schoolteacher Annie, Rod Taylor’s jilted lover in The Birds. I recall a quote from Pleshette saying, “I would have played one of the birds just …

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a suicide attack today. RAWALPINDI, Pakistan – Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed Thursday in a suicide attack as she drove away from a campaign rally just minutes after addressing thousands of supporters, aides said. The attacker shortly after Bhutto addressed the rally in the garrison city of Rawalpindi. There …

(Photo credit: Rex Wockner.) Noted gay author and historian Allan Berube has died due to ulcer complications at age 61. Author Wayne Hoffman, Berube’s longtime friend, has written an obituary: Gay historian Allan Berube, award-winning author of “Coming Out Under Fire,” died on December 11, 2007. He was 61. His death was due to sudden complications following the discovery of …

Clubland was rocked this weekend by the news that Mel Cheren, the “Godfather Of Disco”, has died from complications of AIDS. Cheren provided the financial backing to open legendary gay nightclub the Paradise Garage, and founded seminal dance music label West End Records. Earlier this year, Cheren’s biography, My Life and the Paradise Garage: Keep On Dancin’, was turned into …

New York City and LGBT people everywhere have lost one of their giants in the fight for fairness and equality. Bob Kohler, Stonewall veteran and co-founder of seminal 60’s gay activism group, the Gay Liberation Front, died of cancer on Wednesday at age 81. For more than 40 years, Kohler relentlessly advocated for gays, transsexuals, blacks, PWAs, immigrants, sex workers, …

Evel Knievel, the original “jackass”, is dead at 69. Johnny Knoxville owes his entire schtick to Knievel, don’t you think?

Dick Wilson, AKA Mr. Whipple, dead at 91. Remember he also played the drunk guy on Bewitched who was always seeing Samantha’s magic?

New York’s downtown art and club scene was rocked today by news that Dean Johnson,45, was found dead in Washington DC last week. Johnson’s body has just been identified and the circumstances surrounding his death have not been determined. A rock star, writer, drag performer, party promoter, and porn actor, Johnson first made his mark on Manhattan’s club scene when …