The Obituary Thread

[Shrykespeare]

Been a busy week, not even including Garry Shandling.

Larry Drake, who played the lovable Benny on L.A. Law as well as the villain in such films as Darkman and Dr. Giggles, bassed away on 3/17 at the age of 66.

Joe Santos, veteran character actor on TV and movies and a regular on James Garner's The Rockford Files, died on 3/18 at the age of 84.

Joe Garagiola Sr., a baseball fixture for decades who also subbed for Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show a few times, passed away on 3/23 at the age of 90.

Ken Howard, star of the TV series The White Shadow (among other roles), passed away on 3/23, just days shy of his 72nd birthday.

[W]

One of the biggest country music stars of all time, Merle Haggard, died today at the age of 79. As the story goes, he was at the famous San Quentin Prison concert (as a prisoner) that Johnny Cash put on and was inspired to change his ways. He had 38 #1 country hits, which is third all time.

[W]

Doris Roberts, best known as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, died today at the age of 90. She was excellent as that character and won four Emmys for it.

[W]

Professional wrestling star Chyna (Joanie Lauer) is confirmed to have passed away yesterday at the age of 45. Anyone that watched WWE in the late 90's/early 00's knows who she is. Watching off and on as a kid, she's really the only woman I can remember that was billed as on par with the men. It's hard not to extrapolate the NFL head trauma stuff to these guys and someone should do a study when people like this die young as well.

Also there has been a death at Prince's house and it's being speculated that it's him as he has been in bad health this week. If this is true, it's major news. He is 57.

[Brockster]

Yep, it's true. Shocking stuff.

[numbersix]

Bowie and Prince in one year.

Why is 2016 killing music?

[transformers2]

Bowie and Prince in one year.

Why is 2016 killing music?

Great question. This year already fucking sucks.

[Shrykespeare]

Two more musicians have passed way.


Billy Paul, the Grammy Award-winning singer who hit #1 in 1972 with the R&B song "Me and Mrs. Jones," died April 24 at the age of 81.


Papa Wemba, the Congolese musician who joined Peter Gabriel on his Secret World Live tour and also recorded the album with him, passed on April 24 at the age of 66 after collapsing on stage during a music festival in the Ivory Coast.

[Shrykespeare]

Just in....

Muhammad Ali, maybe the greatest fighter of all time, passed away tonight in a Phoenix hospital. He was 74. He's been battling Parkinson's Disease for 32 years.

[W]

Did you see all the deaths this week? There were a lot of them for some reason, obviously headlined by Muhammad Ali who could be the most popular athlete ever who did more for social causes than any sports celebrity I can think of and is widely credited as the best boxer of all time. He was called the was called "Sportsman of the Century" by Sports Illustrated. Seeing people run beside his hears was pretty moving.

Then Kimbo Slice died at 42. He was a different type of fighter. A Youtube sensation before there were any Youtube sensations. He was a man that was homeless and didn't want to rob, cheat, and steal to get by. To pull himself and his children out of poverty he became a streetfighter. If you've got some time, read the first half of this article from Dan LeBatard that ESPN reposted from the late aughts: http://espn.go.com/extra/mma/news/story?id=3405201

The Gordie Howe, who some believe is the best hockey player ever, passed away at 88. He played professional hockey for 32 seasons over five decades and retired at the age of 52! Hockey is one of the mainstream sports that I only know a little about, but to bring it back to movies, his jersey is the one Cameron wears throughout Ferris Bueller.

Now we have a senseless death of a 22 year old singer. The Voice contestant Christina Grimme was shot by what appears to be a 21 year old crazed fan while giving autographs after a concert.

[Shrykespeare]

Damn. I hadn't heard about Christina Grimmie. That's a freaking shame. She was a great vocalist.

[Buscemi]

Anton Yelchin died earlier this morning.

http://www.tmz.com/2016/06/19/star-trek ... chin-dead/

[numbersix]

What the fuck....

[transformers2]

Such a shocking and awful loss. Yelchin was one of the most consistent and talented young actors in Hollywood imo and I figured the acclaim he received from his performance in Green Room was going to take his career to the next level. RIP.

[Spectre]

Wow. So horrible. And the way it happened too... just wow.