DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

[Frunobulax]

RIP Clifton James

 

[Zombie_61]

Clifton James was one of those great "that guy" actors--people knew his face, but his name didn't come to mind easily. He often put the "character" into character acting, yet managed to stop just short of going "over the top" with his performances (even though he went right to the peak with Sheriff J.W. Pepper in the James Bond movies).

 

[HudsonHawk]

Another guitar picker is gone...legendary jazz/fusion/prog guitarist Allan Holdsworth dead at 70. He was an enormous influence on guitarists that came through the 70s and 80s, and was described as "a guitarist's guitarist", the kind of player other guitarists went out of their way to see play.

 

[MisterCairo]

Cuba Gooding Sr., musician and father of actor CG Jr, has died, aged 72:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/cuba-gooding-sr-singer-obit-1.4079047

 

[Worf]

"Everybody plays the fool... sometimes... You're no exception to the rule... May be factual may be cruel but everybody plays the fool....."

Worf

 

[Stearmen]

Not a big fan, but still sad, Erin Moran, she was only 56!

 

[Stearmen]

"Everybody plays the fool... sometimes... You're no exception to the rule... May be factual may be cruel but everybody plays the fool....."

Worf

 

[MisterCairo]

This is sad to hear...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/erin-moran-obit-1.4081768

 

[MisterCairo]

Robert Pirsig, author of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" has died, aged 88:

http://www.cbc.ca/books/2017/04/rob...art-of-motorcycle-maintenance-dead-at-88.html

 

[MisterCairo]

Film director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Married to the Mob, Philadelphia, etc.) has died, aged 73:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/jonathan-demme-obit-1.4086385

 

[LizzieMaine]

Former major league outfielder Luis Olmo has died at the age of 97. The first Puerto Rican position player in the majors, Olmo broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, and enjoyed an All-Star caliber season in 1945, with a .313 average, and would have been a starter in that year's All Star Game, had that game not been canceled due to wartime travel restrictions. Dodger president Branch Rickey rewarded Olmo for his fine season by threatening to have him sent back to Puerto Rico if he didn't withdraw his demand for a pay raise, so Olmo told Rickey where he could put his contract and jumped to the Mexican League in 1946. This earned him a place on the baseball blacklist, but he was welcomed back to the Dodgers in 1949, and played a key role in the Bums' pennant drive that fall. Rickey rewarded him again by shipping him off to the Boston Braves, where he played thru 1951.

Disenchanted with the majors, Olmo returned to Puerto Rico, and became a star in Caribbean baseball with the Santurce Crabbers. While playing for Santurce, he mentored a young outfielder named Roberto Clemente, about whom much would later be heard. Olmo's Caribbean career earned him a place in the Carribbean Basebal Hall of Fame.

With Olmo's passing, there survive only twenty-three men who performed in Dodger blue under a Brooklyn sky.

 

[Worf]

So... Rickey wasn't always "the great emancipator" he's portrayed as.

Worf

 

[LizzieMaine]

Rickey's nickname in the New York tabloid press was "El Cheapo," for his habit of keeping players' salaries suppressed, and of trading off any player who tried to stand up for his rights. His desire to break the color line in baseball was a sincere one -- but he wasn't such a righteous man when Jackie Robinson came into his office in 1948 looking for a substantial raise over the pidding $5000 he had earned in his dynamic 1947 season. Rickey responded by putting Robinson on the waiver list, making sure that even he understood who was boss.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Meanwhile, another figure from the sports pages of the Era has passed away. Olympic swimming champion Adolph "Sonny Boy" Kiefer has died at the age of 97. He earned a gold medal for the American team at the 1936 Berlin games, and went on to set several world records for the backstroke -- but his competitive career was cut short by the cancellation of the 1940 games, and after wartime service in the Navy, he ended up going into the swimwear business, specializing in competition-grade garments.

Kiefer caught the notice of Adolf Hitler during the Berlin Games, and the Fuehrer made a point of congratulating him after his victory, calling him a "fine example of Aryan youth." Kiefer, who was a close friend of fellow Olympian Jesse Owens, later told an interviewer that Hitler was "a little man with little hands" and a limp handshake -- and that while, at the time, he felt honored to meet such a prominent world figure, if he'd known then what he came to know later, he'd have pushed Hitler in the pool and drowned him.

Kiefer was the last surviving Gold Medalist from the 1936 games.

 

[Zombie_61]

Actor Michael Parks has died at the age of 77. His death in Los Angeles was confirmed by his agent, Jane Schulman, who did not specify the cause.

 

[Frunobulax]

Actor Michael Parks has died at the age of 77. His death in Los Angeles was confirmed by his agent, Jane Schulman, who did not specify the cause.

My mom had a big crush on him. Insisted on watching Then Came Bronson every week.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[Stearmen]

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mr. Parks singlehandedly made "Tusk" the great motion picture that it is.

 

[ChiTownScion]

 

[Stearmen]

View attachment 74412

These days you can have both, and both will cost you an arm and a leg!