DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

[Lady Day]

To all the Buffy/Angel fans out there...

Angel star Hallett dies aged 33

Andy Hallett, a singer who gained fame portraying a green-skinned demon on the cult US TV series Angel, has died of congestive heart disease aged 33.
Hallett was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after having problems breathing and died there on Sunday, his agent said.
It follows a five-year battle with the heart condition.
The star appeared on more than 70 episodes of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff between 2000 and 2004.

LD

 

[Carlisle Blues]

I love performing "Somewhere My Love" (Lara's Theme)

 

[Carlisle Blues]

A true beauty

Eva Evdokimova, Ballerina, Dies at 60

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/arts/dance/06evdokimova.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries

 

[TM]

J G Ballard RIP

British author J. G. Ballard died today. He never really wrote about the FL time period, although Empire of the Sun is in the WWII era. Mostly he wrote apocalyptic science fiction, although he loathed being called a science fiction author. His early works tend to be atmospheric and mysteriously lyrical.

This obituary http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/321364bc-2d19-11de-8710-00144feabdc0.html, from the Financial Times, was written by a contemporary SF author: Christopher Priest. Priest also wrote some mysterious apocalyptic novels, and so his take on Ballard is right on track.

Tony

 

[RBH]

RIP Popcorn Sutton

Just found this out.
This is from the Mar 20, 2009 issue of The Wall street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123759972941001681.html

A scrawny, long-bearded mountain man with a foul mouth and a passing acquaintance with copper tubing and kettles, Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton seemed the embodiment of moonshiners of yore.

Brought up in rural Cocke County, Tenn., identified as one of four “moonshine capitals of the world” in the corn-whiskey history “Mountain Spirits,” Mr. Sutton learned the family trade from his father. The practice goes back to the Scots-Irish, who brought it to the New World, and it wasn’t illegal until after the Civil War, says Dan Pierce, chairman of the history department at the University of North Carolina at Asheville.

“This is something that legitimately is an expression of the culture of this region,” Mr. Pierce says.

Like his forebears, Mr. Sutton had brushes with the law, and was first convicted of selling untaxed liquor in the early 1970s. He mostly kept out of trouble after that, though friends say his nickname came from an unfortunate encounter with a balky barroom popcorn machine. But he was well known as a distiller around his native Parrottsville.

He was a familiar figure at the Misty Mountain Ranch Bed & Breakfast in nearby Maggie Valley, N.C., wearing faded overalls and with a back stooped, he said, from decades of humping bags of sugar into the hills. He picked the banjo and serenaded guests on the inn’s porch. He helped decorate the $155-a-night Moonshiner suite at the inn with some still hardware.

Mr. Sutton put a modern spin on his vocation, appearing in documentaries and even penning an autobiography, “Me and My Likker.” Souvenir shops in Maggie Valley sold his video, “The Last Run of Likker I’ll Ever Make,” and even clocks with his image on them.

Other moonshiners have gone legit and cashed in; a former Nascar driver and moonshiner now offers Junior Johnson’s Midnight Moon in Southern liquor stores. But Mr. Sutton insisted on earning a living the old-fashioned way, and in 2007, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives busted him with 850 gallons of moonshine, stored in an old school bus on his property.

He was convicted in 2008 and was due to report to prison Friday, his widow, Pam Sutton, told the Associated Press. Instead, facing the verdict and ill health, he was found dead by Ms. Sutton at the age of 62 on Monday, and authorities suspect carbon-monoxide poisoning, according to the AP. The Cocke County district attorney’s office said it is investigating the death.

Although Tennessee was once a hotbed of moonshine and federal “revenuers” pursued bootleggers through the hills, an attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee in Greeneville says he couldn’t remember the last federal prosecution of a moonshiner.

“Modern-day moonshining is the manufacture of methamphetamine,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg L. Sullivan says. “Tennessee is in the top five states nationally.”

Ms. Sutton discovered her husband in his green Ford Fairlane. “He called it his three-jug car,” she told the AP, “because he gave three jugs of liquor for it.”

 

[Doctor Strange]

Master cinematographer Jack Cardiff

One of the all-time great cinematographers, noted for his stunning Technicolor work for Powell & Pressburger (A Matter of Life and Death, Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes) and others (e.g., The African Queen). He directed a few interesting films too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Cardiff

A bunch of links re Cardiff - some fascinating stuff:

http://www.ifc.com/blogs/thedaily/2009/04/jack-cardiff-1914---2009.php

 

[Doctor Strange]

Another English director!

Just a day after Jack Cardiff: Ken Annakin, best known for classic Disney films like Swiss Family Robinson.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Annakin

And despite George Lucas' contemporary comment to the contrary (we all know his endless quest to revise every detail about Star Wars!), it was long accepted as common knowledge among fans that Anakin Skywalker was named after Ken Annakin.

 

[Foofoogal]

RIP:Bea Arthur

http://www.nndb.com/people/181/000023112/

I loved that show Golden Girls. Sad.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Bea does "Sex And The City"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMLITlAA0QM

This was the last thing I saw of Bea

Love Bosum buddies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilV5K8tw_6o

 

[HadleyH]

Bea Arthur

http://www.nndb.com/people/181/000023112/

I loved that show Golden Girls. Sad.

Oh no! not her, i liked her so.....

very sad

she was the best

 

[Prairie Dog]

I bet Bea and her 'Golden Girls' mother Sophia (Estelle Getty), are having cheesecake together tonight. True ladies. They don't make them like that any more.

 

[dhermann1]

Frankie Manning 1914 - 2009

Lindy Hop legend Frankie Manning passed away this morning at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. It was not unexpected. He had been there for several days with pneumonia. The whole Swing Dance community world wide grieves along with his family. He projected such joy in life to everyone he encountered. He will be badly missed. God bless you, Frankie.

 

[Feraud]

Isn't there a documentary on Frankie Manning coming up on public television?

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Isn't there a documentary on Frankie Manning coming up on public television?

There should be a movie along the lines of The Buena Vista Social Club. Mr. Manning's story is every bit as compelling.


.

 

[Foofoogal]

http://www.frankiemanning.com/index.php

RIP

Considered the world's leading authority on the lindy, he is highlighted in Ken Burns's acclaimed documentary, Jazz. His autobiography, Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop, co-written by Cynthia R. Millman, was published by Temple University Press in spring 2007.

maybe they will make a movie about him exclusively now.

 

[MrBern]

Isn't there a documentary on Frankie Manning coming up on public television?

Yes, its mentioned in this Daily News obit
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/arts/2009/04/27/2009-04-27_lindy_hop_great_hospitalized.html

 

[MrBern]

Frankie Manning: Never Stop Swinging

Isn't there a documentary on Frankie Manning coming up on public television?

Theres a video clip of the documentary in the NYT obituary:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/arts/dance/28manning.html

 

[Herr Hitman]

Lindy Hop legend Frankie Manning passed away this morning at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. It was not unexpected. He had been there for several days with pneumonia. The whole Swing Dance community world wide grieves along with his family. He projected such joy in life to everyone he encountered. He will be badly missed. God bless you, Frankie.

Sad, never got to see him dance live.
He was an amazing dancer, and we owe him alot.

 

[rsgoldsell]

forthefirst1

forthefirsttimejustsomelittlecometruefalsestrongwordstellusbellringorsadfinallyththreehours

 

[AmateisGal]

Dom DeLuise just passed away.

Loved him in the Cannonball movies.