DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

Wonderful classic actor, R.I.P!

Hurricane Jack said:

Now that really makes me feel old! Johnny Angel has been playing over & over in my head since I learned of her passing.

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I had a real crush on Donna Reed, ***iest mom on television. And Shelly always looked her mirror reflection teenage self, and Johnny Angel now that you mention it is remembrance soundtrack.

Doctor Strange said:

Wow, two major losses in a single day...

Everyone thinks of Tim Curry as a movie actor, and he undoubtedly played lots of great roles on film, but I was lucky to also see him in two Broadway shows.

The second was as King Arthur in Spamalot around 20 years ago - and he was great - but the first was even more special... He played Mozart in the original production of Amadeus in 1980, with Ian McKellen as Salieri and Jane Seymour as Frau Mozart. Lemme tell ya, THAT production was really something.

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(I've mentioned this here before, but it bears repeating: McKellen's performance at the start of this play included the greatest piece of theater magic I've ever experienced. In the movie, narrator Salieri just cuts from being an old man in the asylum to the court composer in his prime. In the play, as he begins the flashback, Salieri slowly stands up from his wheelchair, gradually assumes the bearing and posture of a younger man, drops his blanket revealing fine clothes, strengthens his voice, the lighting changes... and voila! He's suddenly 35.

McKellen astonished me with this performance... so let's just say that I was NOT surprised when he eventually became a film star 20 years later with the one-two punch of X-Men and LOTR.)

And of course, Dolly was an American treasure, I've loved her forever. Alas, I have no special story about her, but she transcends the need for special stories because she was just SO special!

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Club 80 turns out to be a thing.... better, I suppose, than falling to Club 27, but still. Both losses felt hard. Dolly was just a delight; I was moreso a fan of her humanitarianism as anything else. I wore a "Dolly for President" badge for years; I must dig it out in tribute now.

Tim Curry has (obviously) hit our Rocky Horror community especially hard. Not especially surprising given that we so nearly lost him to that terrible stroke in 2012 and knowing he's had health struggles ever since, but it felt out of the blue. It's the second big loss for our community since Tony Head in June. Two huge, FranknFurter shaped holes that bookend this long, hot Summer... I'm gonig to have to sit with Tim's loss for some time. In a very real way he's a huge part of why I'm in this place now, and why I dress as I do.

I wish I'd had the chance to see his Mozart. A shame he lost the Tony, though fitting (and, amusingly ironic in its subversion of Amadeus' central rivalry) that it went to McKellan, another great treasure of the pantheon on English actors.

One thing that has hit me particularly hard was hearing that Tim died on the same day as Dolly, but his people delayed the announcement out of deference to her. I like to imagine them arriving at the Pearly Gates together.

Doctor Strange said:

Wow, two major losses in a single day...

Everyone thinks of Tim Curry as a movie actor, and he undoubtedly played lots of great roles on film, but I was lucky to also see him in two Broadway shows.

The second was as King Arthur in Spamalot around 20 years ago - and he was great - but the first was even more special... He played Mozart in the original production of Amadeus in 1980, with Ian McKellen as Salieri and Jane Seymour as Frau Mozart. Lemme tell ya, THAT production was really something.

View attachment 806048

(I've mentioned this here before, but it bears repeating: McKellen's performance at the start of this play included the greatest piece of theater magic I've ever experienced. In the movie, narrator Salieri just cuts from being an old man in the asylum to the court composer in his prime. In the play, as he begins the flashback, Salieri slowly stands up from his wheelchair, gradually assumes the bearing and posture of a younger man, drops his blanket revealing fine clothes, strengthens his voice, the lighting changes... and voila! He's suddenly 35.

McKellen astonished me with this performance... so let's just say that I was NOT surprised when he eventually became a film star 20 years later with the one-two punch of X-Men and LOTR.)

And of course, Dolly was an American treasure, I've loved her forever. Alas, I have no special story about her, but she transcends the need for special stories because she was just SO special!

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Brian Bedford did the same opening in Stratford, Ontario in a 1990s Amadeus. I'd never heard an audience applaud louder.

Yayoi Kusama passed away at the age of 97 on 14.08.2026.​

Thank you for the great art!

Sleep peacefully!

I am in Nashville, Dolly's adopted home - she lived just south of Nashville - about ten miles away from me.
Some Dolly info that may or may not have reached to folks far away:
She is originally from East Tennessee - in the mountains - and her accent is original, not a put-on.
That accent is almost unique to that region - I was born in the South and have lived here all my life, and I do not sound that way.
I am not being in the least critical - just making clear that her unique Southern sound/voice is NOT part of a hillbilly "act" on her part.
She started "Dollywood" theme park in her home county and it's now the #1 employer in that county.
She gave multiple millions to that region for relief when they experienced floods and forest fires.
In Nashville she has a music-themed hotel opening next month. A Broadway play about her life will open in January.
She has given huge sums to various children's hospitals.
Her most famous song "I will Always Love You", was written right after leaving her mentor, country star Porter Wagoner. She was moving on after getting her start by being on his syndicated country-music TV show. There was some hard feelings there since it was clear she was the greater talent. (That show was broadcast from what is now the newsroom set for the local (Nashville) news on WSMV -TV.)
Every Nashville station has been showing documentaries and interviews of her.
One thing that amused me was that in the song "Nine to Five" what sounds like a typewriter is actually Dolly clicking her long nails together (!).
One interesting answer concerned her significant appeal to the *** folks. Keep in mind the big wig, the rhinestones, the tight outfits, the high-heels:
(Laughing) :"Oh, they don't come to see me, they come to see them (selves)."
One last and most important Dolly-quote:
Multiple times she said that the most important thing she ever did was to start the Imagination Library. In slightly over 20years they have given over 300,000,000 books to children around the world.
(Her father could not read, so the Imagination Library is in his honor.)
I have never met her or even seen her in person, but she seems like a good neighbor to all of us living here in Nashville and in the state of Tennessee.

Artist Peter Max.

Angry Anderson passend away o. 21.09.2026, aged 79 years.

Rest In Peace and let ´em have it, where ever you are now.

Yes. RIP

BobHufford said:

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As a kid, I always loved seeing him on Ed's show.

It's not often these days we mark the passing of a true Golden Age star. There are so few of them left.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/eva-marie-saint-dies-age-102-on-the-waterfront/

This is a blast from the past.
I remember the Patty Hearst kidnapping case as if it was yesterday.

https://nypost.com/2026/10/07/us-news/patty-hearst-kidnapper-bill-harris-dead-at-81/

The Symbionese Liberation Army? Give me a break. What crazy times we lived through.

Tiki Tom said:

This is a blast from the past.
I remember the Patty Hearst kidnapping case as if it was yesterday.

https://nypost.com/2026/10/07/us-news/patty-hearst-kidnapper-bill-harris-dead-at-81/

The Symbionese Liberation Army? Give me a break. What crazy times we lived through.

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I do too. It was a huge story at the time with several bizarre twists.

In a pre-Internet era, this was the equivalent of a picture going viral:

^ As recalled F. Lee Bailey was her defense counsel.
And that sorry b-astard Steven Weed was her boyfriend.

Rich people.

Sudden Sam McDowell

https://www.mlb.com/news/sam-mcdowell-dies-at-84

Ditka

https://www.nfl.com/news/mike-ditka...as-hall-of-fame-player-larger-than-life-coach

Hoist one for Da Coach

Lifetime Chicagoan and Bears fan; so this hits like a sledgehammer to the heart.

RIP Mike.