DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

[dhermann1]

Unforgetable as lust-crazed Sister Ruth in Black Narcissus, and a fascinating presence in many other films over an amazingly long career:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/jan/19/kathleen-byron-obituary

I had just shown a friend A Matter of Life and Death last night, and pointed out her small role as the angel in charge of the aircrew section. She makes quite an impression with only a couple of minutes of screen time. (Only one of the many pleasures in this wonderfully clever film from the great Powell & Pressburger team.)

Did you notice Richard Attenboro at the beginning? He's involved in the little theater production the soldiers are putting on.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Actually, I think he appears earlier, in the first afterlife scene with Robert Coote and Kathleen Byron, as the very young, blankly astounded English flyer who can't believe he's there.

And IMDB's pages on the film confirms it:

Richard Attenborough only has one line, which is: "It's heaven, isn't it?"

(Byron's friendly response is, "Pretty much so." This is the nearest the film ever comes to calling its secular, businesslike afterlife heaven.)

 

[H.Johnson]

Yes, watched it last night. I think you're right.

 

[Haversack]

Last Known Survivor of the 1906 Firequake

Herbert Heimie Hamrol died yesterday. He was 106. Worked in a local grocery store stocking shelves up until last week. I've heard him talk many times down at Lotta's Fountain about being carried down the stairs during the Quake and living in Golden Gate Park after the Fire. RIP Mr. Hamrol.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/06/BAFC15OG9R.DTL&hw=hamrol&sn=001&sc=1000

 

[Feraud]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090207/ap_en_ce/obit_james_whitmore

Versatile actor James Whitmore dies
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer Bob Thomas, Associated Press Writer
20 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – James Whitmore, the many-faceted character actor who delivered strong performances in movies, television and especially the theater with his popular one-man shows about Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt, died Friday, his son said. He was 87.

The Emmy- and Tony-winning actor was diagnosed with lung cancer the week before Thanksgiving and died Friday afternoon at his Malibu home, Steve Whitmore said.

"My father believed that family came before everything, that work was just a vehicle in which to provide for your family," said Whitmore, who works as spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "At the end, and in the last two and a half months of his life, he was surrounded by his family."

His long-running "Give 'em Hell, Harry," tracing the life of the 33rd president, was released as a theatrical movie in 1975. Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor, marking the only time in Oscar history that an actor has been nominated for a film in which he was the only cast member. His Teddy Roosevelt portrait, "Bully," was also converted into a movie.

He later became the TV pitchman for Miracle-Gro plant food, and used the product in his large vegetable garden at his Malibu home.

While not known for his politics, Whitmore was an early supporter of President Barack Obama. He stumped for Obama during a 2007 rally at the Gibson Theatre at Universal Studios, telling the crowd that Obama had the wisdom "to deal with a very, very confused and complex country, and the world." Whitmore also appeared in TV commercials in 2008 for the "First Freedom First" campaign, which advocates religious liberty and preserving the separation of church and state.

Whitmore had regularly attended an Oscar night bash, Night of 100 Stars, and had sent in his RSVP for this year, said Edward Lozzi, a spokesman for agent Norby Walters' gala.

Whitmore started both his Broadway and Hollywood careers with acclaimed performances, both as tough-talking sergeants. In 1947, discharged a year from Marine duty, he made his Broadway debut in a taut Air Force drama, "Command Decision." He was awarded a Tony for outstanding performance by a newcomer.

Two years later, Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe as supporting actor in the war movie "Battleground."

He followed with memorable performances in scores of films, refusing to be typed. Besides war movies, he appeared in Westerns ("The Last Frontier," "Chato's Land"), musicals ("Kiss Me Kate," "Oklahoma!"), science fiction ("Planet of the Apes," "Them"), dramas ("The Asphalt Jungle," "The Shawshank Redemption") and comedies ("Mr. O'Malley and Mrs. Malone," "The Great Diamond Robbery.")

Shirley Jones, a teenager when she starred in "Oklahoma," said she came to know Whitmore during months of filming in Nogales, Ariz., and recalled being impressed by her good-humored and highly disciplined colleague.

"He told me, `If you're going to be in this business, you better learn your craft,'" Jones recalled. "And he never stopped learning."

His favorite film was "Black Like Me" (1964), a true story about a white reporter who blackened his face to experience life as an African-American in the South.

Another of his rare starring roles was "The Next Voice You Hear" (1950), in which a family hears the voice of God via the radio. He played opposite Nancy Davis, the future Mrs. Ronald Reagan.

Whitmore often appeared on television, starring in the series "The Law and Mr. Jones" (1960-1962), "My Friend Tony" (1969) and "Temperatures Rising" (1972-1973). He received an Emmy in 1999 as guest actor in a series for "The Practice."

Jones recalled seeing him in a 2007 episode of the TV drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and marveling at his still-sharp talent. "I was absolutely blown away by that. He had a huge role, playing a lawyer, and it was phenomenal," she said.

A student of history, Whitmore delighted in portraying famous American personages. He toured in the play "The Magnificent Yankee," about Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. He played Ulysses S. Grant in a 1960 TV movie, Adm. William F. "Bull" Halsey in the Pearl Harbor attack spectacle "Tora! Tora! Tora!", and Walt Whitman in a dramatic reading, "A Whitman Portrait."

The monologues of Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Teddy Roosevelt brought Whitmore his greatest success. In 2000, he appeared in "Will Rogers, U.S.A." at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., his eighth engagement in the show at Ford's over a 30-year period.

President Ford attended a performance of "Give 'em Hell, Harry" at Ford's Theater after Richard Nixon resigned. Whitmore worried about Ford's reaction to Truman's crusty words about Nixon.

The actor recalled: "I was three feet from Gerry Ford when I said to the press as Truman: `Nixon is a no-good lying (expletive); if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd tell a lie just to keep his hand in.' After the show, (Ford) came up on stage and put his arm around me and said, `That was a pretty good blocking back.'" Ford had been line coach when Whitmore played football at Yale.

His movie and television careers continued into the 21st century, but he admitted that he preferred the stage.

"I find the process of making movies absolutely boring," he told a reporter in 1994. "It's so fragmented. You wait and wait and wait and then, look, as Jack Lemmon says, `It's magic time.' In the theater, once the curtain goes up, the actor is in charge."

Born in 1921 in White Plains, N.Y., Whitmore was active in school sports and acted in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, though his strict Methodist family disapproved of the profession. After a year at an Ivy League prep school, Whitmore in 1939 enrolled in prelaw at Yale University, where he had won a football scholarship. Two knee injuries ended his football career, and he devoted himself to dramatics.

After graduating from Yale, he enlisted in the Marines and served in the South Pacific. "I had a lot of time to think in the Marine Corps," he recalled, "and so I decided it wasn't the law I wanted but the theater."

In New York he studied at the American Theater Wing under the G.I. Bill, living on $20 a week and rooming with another hopeful actor, Jack Warden. After a season in summer stock in New Hampshire, he returned to New York and won the role of Sergeant Harold Evans in "Command Decision." Rave reviews started his career in motion.

He married Nancy Mygatt in 1947, and the couple had three sons, James, Steven and Daniel. They later divorced, and in 1971 he married an actress, Audra Lindley. They often appeared in plays together, even after their 1979 divorce. He remarried his first wife in the 1980s, but another divorce ensued. Nearing 80 in 2001, Whitmore married actress-writer Noreen Nash.

Whitmore is also survived by eight grandchildren.

___

AP entertainment writers Lynn Elber and Derrik J. Lang contributed to this story.

 

[Hondo]

James Whitmore

Yeah an awesome actor "Battle Ground" a great WWII film,
Whitmore is the last of a dying breed.
Rest in Peace Sir

http://movies.msn.com/movies/article.aspx?news=351307&gt1=28101

 

[MrBern]

threes

Battleground is awesome. Whitmore got an Academy Award nomination for that one.
And three of its stars have passed in the last three months.
Van Johnson in Dec, RicardoMontalban in Jan, and now James Whitmore in Feb.

 

[DOUGLAS]

Not too many of the old school still around.

 

[cookie]

Colonel David Smiley has died aged 92.

This heroic man's exploits in war and peacetime defy description.

Born into an aristocratic and wealthy family, he was a combination of Lawrence of Arabia (he once led a Bedu cavalry charge) David Stirling (they were friends and served together in SAS), Michael Foot (served with him in SOE), Mike Hoare (became a 'soldier of fortune' when denied promotion to brigadier in 1961) and Egon Ronay (became an inspector for the Good Food Guide).

A truly amazing chronical. His like will probably not be seen again.

Adieu, Colonel.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4210129/Colonel-David-Smiley.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Smiley http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/05/colonel-david-smiley-obituary

 

[cookie]

Col. David Smiley

Colonel David Smiley has died aged 92.

This heroic man's exploits in war and peacetime defy description.

Born into an aristocratic and wealthy family, he was a combination of Lawrence of Arabia (he once led a Bedu cavalry charge) David Stirling (they were friends and served together in SAS), Michael Foot (served with him in SOE), Mike Hoare (became a 'soldier of fortune' when denied promotion to brigadier in 1961) and Egon Ronay (became an inspector for the Good Food Guide).

A truly amazing chronical. His like will probably not be seen again.

Adieu, Colonel.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/4210129/Colonel-David-Smiley.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Smiley http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/05/colonel-david-smiley-obituary

 

[carter]

Buena Vista Social Club bassist Orlando Lopez dead at 76

HAVANA - Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez, considered the "heartbeat" of Cuba's legendary Buena Vista Social Club for his internationally acclaimed bass playing, died Monday of complications from prostate surgery, fellow musicians said. He was 76.

 

[dhermann1]

BVSC

If you haven't fallen in love with the Buena Vista Social Club yet, I suggest you go out and buy or rent it right away. One by one they're passing away. If the music and the human stories of that filnm don't go straight to your heart, then there's something wrong with you.
He will be missed.

 

[Peacoat]

Little Walter Jacobs

I had intended to post the below note in this section yesterday, but I posted it in "This Date in History" by mistake. Guess it won't hurt anything to post it here, where it belongs.

February 15, 1968. 37 years old. King of the Blues Harmonica. Marion Walter "Little Walter" Jacobs. Died at home from head injuries suffered in a fight earlier that day. Unfortunately his life had been headed toward that conclusion for a number of years.

Born in Marksville, LA in 1930, he began playing harp in 1938. He left home at 13 and made his way to Chicago at age 17. Playing for tips on Maxwell Street in 1947, he soon caught the attention of many of the musicians of the day who had made the same journey as Walter. One of those musicians was Muddy Waters.

In 1948 Muddy added Walter to his road band, which included Jimmie Rogers on guitar, Big Crawford on bass, and Baby Face Leroy on drums. In 1951 Walter joined Muddy and Big Crawford in the studio to record the nationwide hit, "Louisiana Blues."

In 1952 Walter had the instrumental hit, "Juke." He left Muddy Waters band, to be replaced by Jr. Wells, and returned to Chicago to put together his own band, consisting of Dave and Louie Meyers on guitars and Freddie "Back Beat" Below on drums. "Juke" spent 20 weeks on the Billboard R&B charts, and 8 weeks at #1.

While Walter had his own string of hits during the 50s, he still recorded on most of Muddy's sessions during those days. These sessions produced some of Walter's best work. He didn't have to be concerned about singing on his own sessions and could devote his time and creativity to his instrument.

His lifestyle, however, had begun to take its toll by the late 50s. Also the publics taste in music had begun to change. Photographs from that period show Walter with facial scars received in various altercations while he had been drinking. Each of the scars has its own story. During the 70s and early 80s I was friends with the Muddy Waters' Band and learned how Walter got several of those scars. Muddy told me that Walter was the wildest person he ever knew. Walter's life was not an easy life.

While Walter's life was not an easy one, his mastery of the instrument has given us an art form unparalleled by any harp player before or since. His playing is truly the standard by which all harp players are judged. Muddy Waters also told me that Walter was the best he had ever heard, and Muddy heard them all.

In March, 2008, 40 years after his death, Walter was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. See part of the induction ceremony here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaqTyDC0TZg

These notes on Little Walter wouldn't be complete without a picture or two. The first is a publicity shot from his early days at Chess. He is really young. The photo is also currently used in a book on Walter's story by Tony Glover, Scott Dirks & Ward Gaines. I haven't yet read it, but intend to do so shortly (available at Amazon). The second is one of the few surviving candid shots of Walter. I would say it is from the mid 60s.


His life was troubled and short, but he gave us so much. Little Walter: May 1, 1930--February 15, 1968.

 

[RondoHatton]

Britain's last pit pony dies

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...ning/4682345/Britains-last-pit-pony-dies.html

Last Updated: 10:44PM GMT 17 Feb 2009

Britain's last surviving pit pony, Pip, has died in County Durham.

The workhorse, who lived to 35, passed away at Beamish Open Air Museum, near Stanley, where he had lived for the past 23 years.

During that time he has had a booklet published in his honour and was even introduced to royalty.

He worked at Blackburn Drift, Marley Hill Colliery, near Sunniside, Gateshead, working the narrow seams 150 feet underground until it closed 30 years ago, when he was aged five.

He then moved to Sacriston Colliery, near Durham. He worked there until it ceased production in 1985. Pip was kept on for another year to help with salvage work before being given to Beamish.

Jacki Winstanley, spokeswoman at Beamish, said staff were mourning his passing.

He said: "We think he may have been the last surviving working pit pony in Britain.

"He was certainly the only surviving working pit pony from the northern coalfields.

"He had a long and happy retirement at Beamish and he trained his successor, Flash, to wear his harness to show visitors the type he wore down the mine.

At the peak in 1913, there were 70,000 ponies underground in Britain. By 1984 the numbers had dwindled to 55, many of them at Ellington in Northumberland.

In 2002 during a visit to Beamish, the Princess Royal, herself an accomplished horsewoman, spent more than her allotted time with the then 28-year-old Pip and his handler, Martin Gallagher.

Two years later, to celebrate his 30th birthday, the museum produced a family activity booklet, called Pip the Pit Pony Explores, where a charismatic caricature of Pip takes families on a light-hearted tour of the award-winning Town Street.

 

[Hondo]

Ben Davis, S.F. maker of sturdy clothing, dies

Ben Davis who worked with early along with Levi Strauss.
I always wondered about these working mens clothes and how
popular they became with youth, hip hop culture and gangs!
Quite an interesting life, R.I.P. Mr. Davis

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/18/BA5U15VP16.DTL

 

[Story]

Mar 6, 7:02 PM EST


North America's 1st female ship captain dies at 93


BANGOR, Maine (AP) -- Molly K. Carney, who as Molly Kool was the first woman in North America to become a licensed ship captain, has died at her home at the age of 93.

Known in Canada by her maiden name, Molly Kool won her captain's papers in 1939 and sailed the Atlantic Ocean between Alma, New Brunswick, and Boston for five years, her friend Ken Kelly said.

Kool grew up in the village of Alma, where she learned a love of the sea and sailing from her father, a Dutch ship captain. At 23, she made history by earning the title of captain, after the Canadian Shipping Act was rewritten to say "he/she" instead of just "he," Kelly said.

She overcame superstitions about women working at sea and won the respect of her male counterparts as she sailed her father's 70-foot boat in the dangerous waters of the Bay of Fundy, said Mary Majka, who joined Kelly in a fundraising effort to pay to move her ancestral home from Alma to a knoll in nearby Fundy National Park overlooking the bay this spring.

"She was good enough that she won the respect of the old salts," Majka said.

Kool left New Brunswick after marrying Ray Blaisdell, of Bucksport, Maine, in 1944. They were together for 20 years before he died. In the 1960s, she married businessman John Carney, who bought her a boat, which he dubbed the Molly Kool.

In her final years, she lived in an independent retirement community in Bangor, where there was a lighthouse and a captain's wheel in the hallway outside her room and where residents called her Captain Molly, Kelly said. She died there Feb. 25.

Kool also was well known in the U.S., where she appeared on an episode of "Ripley's Believe It or Not!" and was flown to New York for the show.

She is survived by a sister, one of four siblings. A memorial service is planned next month in Bangor, and this summer her ashes will be returned to New Brunswick, where her wish of being returned to the sea will be honored.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

Sydney Chaplin, Actor Who Dodged Father’s Shadow, Dies at 82


Published: March 7, 2009

Sydney Chaplin, who emerged from the shadow of his famous father, Charlie Chaplin, to carve out a successful stage career that included leading roles opposite Judy Holliday in the musical “Bells Are Ringing,” and Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl,” died on Tuesday at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 82.

 

[Warden]

TV magician Ali Bongo dies at 79

I was a big fan of Ali in the 1970s. Loved his act.

Magician Ali Bongo, who made numerous appearances on television, has died aged 79 after suffering a stroke.

BBC news report below

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7931251.stm

Harry

 

[Warbaby]

Another great musician passes...

Country singer Hank Locklin ("Please Help Me, I'm Falling") died yesterday, age 91.

 

[BakingInPearls]

A man that has saved many a life, Jim Diest of Diest Saftey Equipment has died. He was a wonderful man that you could always pick out of a crowd with his large selection of overalls.