Obituaries Notable people that have passed

Hightower dies aged 66.

Charles 'Bubba' Smith was found dead in his Los Angeles home today. It appeared that he died of natural causes although the coroner is investigating.


article-2022191-0D4967BA00000578-257_468x589.jpg

Sports star: Smith during his American football days playing for the Baltimore Colts in 1967

[video=youtube;7-chBVj6b5s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-chBVj6b5s&feature=related[/video]


Linky
 
Last edited:
Nancy Wake has died. I didnt know of her until I read the article about her exploits and sheer badassery.

She could kill Nazis with her bare hands: Nancy 'the White Mouse' Wake has died

AFTER witnessing Hitler's early atrocities, Nancy Wake vowed to fight him any way she could.She fought so well, she ended up on top of the Gestapo's wanted list, saved thousands of Allied lives, played a crucial role in D-Day and received France's highest military honour.
"Nobody can beat you Nancy, nobody," Sonya d'Artois told her old Resistance comrade when Wake was awarded Australia's highest civilian honour in 2004, six decades after the French recognised her.
She was resourceful, cunning, feisty, brave and tough, once killing a German sentry with her bare hands.
"She is the most feminine woman I know until the fighting starts. Then, she is like five men," one French colleague said of her. But, at the age of 98, Wake was finally beaten.

The White Mouse died in a London hospital yesterday following a chest infection.

Highest honour
After decades of confrontations with the RSL and Australian government, Wake moved back to England in 2001, aged 88 and determined to see out her days in the country which trained her as a spy and in the company of old comrades.

She was the Allies' most decorated WWII servicewoman and is revered in France as a national heroine for her Resistance work and bravery.
Wake was awarded France's highest honour, the Legion d'Honneur, as well as three Croix de Guerre and a French Resistance Medal, Britain's George Medal and the US Medal of Freedom.


744882-nancy-wake.jpg

Wake holds her country's highest civilian honour, the Companion of the Order of Australia. She had to wait 60 years for Australia to award her a medal. Picture: AFP
Source: AFP

When she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia at a ceremony in London in March, 2004, d'Artois flew in from Canada especially for the event and was joined by other former Special Operations Executive (SOE) spies and servicemen, including Air Chief Marshall Sir Lewis Hodges who was saved by Wake after being shot down over occupied France.

Hodges' was one of thousands of lives saved by Wake, who the Gestapo labelled the White Mouse because of her ability to repeatedly evade capture, despite a five million franc bounty on her head.
Born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1912, but moved to Sydney when she was one, Wake was independent and resourceful from a young age, moving out of home at 16 to train as a nurse and leaving Australia to see the world in her 20s.

She worked as a journalist in Europe in the 1930s, witnessing Hitler's Nazis persecute the Jews in Vienna and Paris and vowed to fight the German dictator.
She also loved a good time and the self confessed playgirl lived a heady and very sociable life in Paris, meeting her match in wealthy French industrialist and playboy Henri Fiocca. They married in 1940 and both became active in the French Resistance when the Germans occupied the country that year.

A spy and saboteur
For three years, she set up escape routes for thousands of Allied soldiers and airmen and led a band of the Resistance, but had to flee over the Pyrenees to Spain and eventually England after being arrested in 1943.

In England, she was trained by the SOE as a spy and saboteur and was parachuted back into France on the night of February 29, 1944 to lead 7000 Resistance fighters on life-threatening missions distributing weapons and sabotaging Nazi installations before D-day.

One operation included an attack on the local Gestapo headquarters in Montlucon, central France, where she requested her ashes be scattered.
She was machine gunned by a German aircraft and cycled 500 kilometres for three days through German checkpoints carrying vital radio codes for the Allies, taking out a factory and dispatching that SS guard along the way.

At the end of the war she learned the Gestapo had tortured and killed Fiocca in 1943 when he refused to give her up.

She returned to Australia after the war, unsuccessfully standing as a Liberal candidate in the 1949 and 1951 federal elections, but recording significant swings against Labor incumbent Herbert Evatt in the seat of Barton.

She returned to Europe after the 1951 election, married her second husband, former RAF fighter pilot John Forward, and came back to Australia with him in the 1960s.
The would-be politician again achieved a sizable swing for the Liberals but failed to take the Sydney seat of Kingsford Smith at the 1966 federal election.

"You can stick your medals"
In the mid 1980s, Wake and Forward left Sydney to retire to Port Macquarie, where he died in 1997.
Despite receiving the highest decorations from the French, British and Americans, Wake never received a military honour from Australia and left the country in 2001 after telling the government it "could stick their medals where the monkey stuck his nuts".

The RSL had said the government was "technically correct", but "a bit mean", not to award her a medal because she was born in New Zealand and never fought as an Australian servicewoman.
Three years later, the government, and Wake, mellowed and she accepted her Companion of the Order of Australia with humility.
"I feel very honoured. I never thought that would happen to me. It's really a wonderful feeling, I can't really express it in so many words, except that I feel honoured by it," she said after the ceremony at Australia House in London.
"I hope I'm worth it. I hope I will be able to live up to the oath that I have made to my country. And the people in it and those that will come after us."
As part of its rapprochement, the federal government helped pay the costs of her care in her latter years.

Still feisty and sharp
She lived the first two years of her life back in London at the Stafford Hotel in Piccadilly, enjoying six gin and tonics every afternoon at her reserved seat in its downstairs bar until a heart attack in 2003 slowed her down.

She then moved to the Royal Star and Garter, a nursing home for retired veterans, overlooking a bucolic River Thames in Richmond in west London.
A band of loyal friends of all ages looked out for her in London and many generous benefactors from around the world also helped pay the costs of her care and accommodation.

745521-nancy-wake.jpg

Nancy Wake enjoyed six gins a day until a heart attack in 2003 forced her to cut back. Picture: Tim Anderson
Source: Supplied

Even as she lived a quiet and contented life at the Star and Garter, she remained feisty and was still a sharp judge of character, resisting hundreds of requests for public appearances and meetings with politicians.

But even into her late 90s, she still loved a good party, as long as it involved some gin and her old war colleagues, or handsome young men in uniform, or best still, a combination of all three.
One of her last public appearances was as a guest of the trainee officers at Sandhurst Military Academy in Surrey, where she charmed the young men as much as they charmed her.
She had no children, but had a message for Australian youngsters.

"To honour your mother and father, your family, to be truthful ... don't steal or get mixed up with drugs and things like that," she said when collecting her AC.
"There's no point in doing anything like that. All this behaviour, doesn't mean you can't have fun.
"In fact, you can have more fun because the world is safer."
And she had great fun doing her bit to keep it safe.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/nan...ed/story-e6frfkvr-1226110714515#ixzz1UWr89YE4
 
It seems that Professor Stephen Falken aka Dr Robert Hume really is dead now.

RIP John Wood.
 
Nick Ashford

Nick Ashford

Nick Ashford, who co-wrote hits for Marvin Gaye (among others) such as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" with his wife, has died at the age of 70.

:cry:
 
I don't know if any of you non-Germans know him, but Loriot passed away yesterday. He is an iconic German humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer (yes, Germany and humor in one sentence are normally mutually exclusive, but the exception proves the rule ;) ) whose sketches were adopted into German common knowledge and everyday speech.
 
I don't know if any of you non-Germans know him, but Loriot passed away yesterday. He is an iconic German humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer (yes, Germany and humor in one sentence are normally mutually exclusive, but the exception proves the rule ;) ) whose sketches were adopted into German common knowledge and everyday speech.

This made me really sad, he will be missed, Genius. :(
"Weihnachten bei Hoppenstedts" made me laugh so hard during the Nuclear Power debate "Und dann macht es puff und alle H?user fliegen weg und alle K?he fallen um"

 
http://detnews.com/article/20110823.../Legendary-songwriters-made-rock--R&B-history

Legendary songwriters made rock, R&B history


Two legendary songwriters behind some of the most popular rock and R&B tunes died Monday.

Nick Ashford, one-half of the legendary Motown songwriting duo Ashford & Simpson, died at age 70.

Jerry Leiber, who with longtime partner Mike Stoller wrote "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Yakety Yak" and other hit songs that came to define early rock 'n' roll, died at of cardiopulmonary failure at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said his longtime publicist, Bobbi Marcus.

Ashford's longtime friend and former publicist Liz Rosenberg said Ashford, who along with wife Valerie Simpson wrote some of Motown's biggest hits, died in a New York City hospital. He had been suffering from throat cancer and had undergone radiation treatment.

Though they had some of their greatest success at Motown with classics such as "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and "Reach Out And Touch Somebody's Hand" by Diana Ross and "You're All I Need To Get By" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, Ashford & Simpson also created classics for others, such as the anthem "I'm Every Woman" by Chaka Khan (and later remade by Whitney Houston).

They also had success writing for themselves: Perhaps the biggest was the 1980s hit "Solid As A Rock."

Their first major success was when they came up with "Let's Go Get Stoned" for Ray Charles. That song became a huge hit, and soon they came to the attention of Motown Records and began penning hits for their artists. For years the pair flew back and forth to Detroit, competing with other writers in an environment Ashford said was creatively fruitful.

"Competition brings out the best in you," he said in 1976. "You don't know how much reserve you really have until you push yourself. There were so many good writers and producers there. You felt you had to call upon yourself for more than you had previously been doing."

That push made Ashford's work stand out, Motown songwriter Janie Bradford said. "The quality was very polished and professional? Nick had a way with words. "

Describing the duo's gospel influence on their popular songs, Ashford told The News in 1972: "We feel that we have brought a particular feeling across the bridge to the R&B idiom. And ? whether you are singing R&B or soul, you have to get it because it's that deep."

The pair owned the New York City restaurant Sugar Bar, where many top names and emerging talents would put on showcases.

Ashford is survived by his wife and two daughters.

Another lifelong partnership, Leiber and Stoller were one of pop music's most successful teams, from Big Mama Thornton's 1953 rendition of "Hound Dog," through Peggy Lee's 1969 "Is That All There Is?" "He was my friend, my buddy, my writing partner for 61 years," Stoller said. "We met when we were 17 years old. He had a way with words. There was nobody better. I am going to miss him."


From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110823...gwriters-made-rock--R&B-history#ixzz1W590JYTQ



http://detnews.com/article/20110825...sther-Gordy-Edwards--‘always-came-out-a-hero’

Motown's matriarch, Esther Gordy Edwards, 'always came out a hero'



Esther Gordy Edwards, a pioneering female executive at Motown, founder of the Motown Historical Museum and sister of Berry Gordy Jr., died Wednesday at home, with family and friends at her side. She was 91.

"Whatever she did, it was with the highest standards, professionalism and an attention to detail that was legendary," Motown founder Gordy said in a statement. "She always came out a hero. Esther wasn't concerned with being popular. She was dedicated to making us all better ? the Gordy family and the Motown family."

At a time ? the early 1960s ? when female record executives were few and far between, Edwards was a trusted lieutenant to her brother at Motown, serving as manager to many of his young acts, eventually promoted to become a senior vice-president, corporate secretary and director of Motown international operations.

"She lived a good life," said Motown star Martha Reeves. "She was so important in the development of Motown."

Edwards was the Motown executive who rode along with the young (often teenaged) acts on the Motown Revue bus tours as they traveled through often-dangerous conditions ? the bus was once pelted with bullets ? in the Southern U.S. in the early 1960s.

"She was riding right with us on the bus on that first Motown Revue," Reeves recalled. "She took us through the ranks and was a very good mentor. And she loved the artists as much as Berry. The proof of it was, she stayed here when Motown moved to L.A. (in 1972). We're going to really miss her."

Edwards was especially active in Stevie Wonder's career when he was a minor, helping him set up tutors, manage his money and enroll in the Michigan School for the Blind.

"She believed in me," Wonder said in a statement. "When I was 14 years old and many other people didn't or could only see what they could at the time, she championed me being in Motown. I shared with her many of my songs first before anyone else. She was like another mother to me; she was an extension of that same kind of motherly love."

Petite (4-feet-10), and, like all the Gordy women, always immaculately turned out in designer suits and high heels, Edwards was revered for a tough-mindedness that was leavened with warmth and humor.

Asked once why her brother had so many women in executive positions at Motown, Edwards leaned in to whisper, with a wink, "Berry knew ? women are smarter than men."

Singer Smokey Robinson worked alongside her as a vice-president at Motown.

"Not only is she one of the most important people to come into my life both personally and professionally and someone I will always love, but it is because of her wisdom and foresight that we have a pictorial and itemized history of Motown, the Motown Museum, which allows people now and for generations to come to have a first-hand look at our legacy. Thank you, Esther, and I know you are in the arms of God," Robinson said in a statement.

Edwards was born April 25, 1920, in Oconee, Georgia, to Berry "Pops" Gordy, Sr. and Bertha Fuller Gordy, the eldest daughter in a family of eight children (her sisters were Loucye, Anna and Gwen, her brothers Fuller, George, Berry Jr. and Robert L.).

The family moved to Detroit when Edwards was a toddler. The close-knit Gordys lived on the west side of Detroit, and their hard-working father ran a construction business, a grocery, a printing business and other concerns, while their mother sold insurance and was a businesswoman on her own.

In 2003, Edwards laid out the Gordy family philosophy to The Detroit News:

"Be the best, strive for excellence, learn everything. My dad taught us girls how to change tires, we knew how to drive cars by the time we were 9 or 10 years old," Edwards said. "Whoever can do a job best, let them do it. Some women can do better handling money than the fellows. Berry had more women vice-presidents and above than any other corporation at the time."

Infused with the Gordy passion for business, Edwards helped establish the Ber-Berry Co-Op, a family bank that each Gordy was expected to give $10 to each month. It was an $800 loan from the Gordy "bank" in 1959 that helped brother Berry buy the house at 2648 W. Grand Blvd. for his fledgling record company.

True to form, it was Edwards who was the toughest sell. She was skeptical of her younger brother's dream of a pop music empire, and had to be convinced he would pay the money back.

Edwards graduated from Cass Tech and attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. and Wayne State. Her first marriage, to Robert Theron Bullock, produced her son Robert Berry Bullock. She married Michigan Rep. George Edwards in 1951, and has a stepson from that marriage, Judge Harry T. Edwards.

Her son Robert's daughter Robin Terry went to work at the museum under her grandmother. Today Terry is the Motown Historical Museum's chairman and executive director. When Edwards was honored by The Detroit News as a Michiganian of the Year in 2005, for her charitable achievements and stewardship of the Motown Historical Museum, Terry paid tribute to her grandmother's generosity. With Edwards, "It's always about, 'How do I create more opportunities for other people?"

Motown, of course, wasn't Edwards' only business interest. She served on the board of directors of the Bank of the Commonwealth and was active in many professional groups, and local charities. Upon Loucye Gordy's death in 1965, Edwards established a scholarship in her sister's name for underprivileged students. That led to the founding of the Gordy Foundation, which still funds scholarships for inner city youth.

Among many honors, Edwards received the Detroit Urban League's Distinguished Warriors Award, the National Community Service Award from the National Association of Business and Professional Women's Clubs, Inc., the Business Achievement Award from PUSH, a social justice movement founded by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, in addition to many others.

She was the first African-American appointed to Detroit's Recorder's Court Jury Commission and subsequently became its Chairman. She was also the first African-American woman to be elected a delegate-at-large for the state of Michigan, at the 1960 Democratic convention. She was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha and Phi Delta sororities, and a member of Bethel AME Church.

The Motown Historical Museum is Edwards' most lasting legacy. It was her cherished dream to transform Motown's West Grand Boulevard location into a museum, to welcome the many fans who traveled there from all corners of the world. She finally achieved that dream in the late 1980s. As the Gordy family "packrat," having squirreled away photos and memorabilia over the years, she was well positioned to do it.

"She preserved Motown memorabilia before it was memorabilia, collecting our history long before we knew we were making it," Berry Gordy Jr. said. "She nurtured and held it together through the years, protecting the Motown legacy for generations to come ? which is only one of the reasons people all over the world will remember and celebrate Esther Gordy Edwards."

"Tough" is a word that many Motown associates and friends use in describing Edwards, just as often they note her warmth and maternal attention.

Paul Barker was just 18 in 1988 when he talked Edwards into letting him hang out at Motown on his days off from work. He eventually became a tour guide, and the museum's first paid employee. That Edwards didn't bounce him from the premises amazes Barker to this day.

"Here's this woman who worked with some of the greatest people in popular culture, and yet she's nurturing you," Barker said. "She was tough, but she'd offer her experience to help you reach your full potential. She was just fantastic."

Edwards was the one sister who would tell her brother, the revered Motown founder, when she thought he was wrong.

"That's why he trusted her," said Barker. "She wasn't afraid to take an opposing opinion, even if everybody disagreed with her."

"She was definitely a pioneer," said Audley Smith, chief operating officer of the Motown Historical Museum.

"She embodied the idea of never giving up," Wonder said. "She was ever determined in everything she did, she was full of energy and her spirit will continue to live on. She loved the idea of what we were creating at Motown."


From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20110825...wards--?always-came-out-a-hero?#ixzz1W59atvGg
 
http://www.latimes.com/news/la-fgw-russia-jet-crash-20110907,0,6585740.story


Russian jet carrying hockey team crashes, 43 dead


TUNOSHNA, Russia? A Russian jet carrying a top ice hockey team crashed while taking off Wednesday, killing at least 43 people and leaving two others critically injured, officials said. It was one of the worst plane crashes ever involving a sports team.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said the Yak-42 plane crashed into a riverbank on the Volga River immediately after leaving an airport near the western city of Yaroslav, 150 miles northeast of Moscow. It was sunny at the time.

It said the plane was carrying the Lokomotiv ice hockey team from Yaroslavl to Minsk, the capital of Belarus, where the team was to play Thursday against Dinamo Minsk in the opening game of the season of the Kontinental Hockey League. The plane had 45 people on board, including 37 passengers and eight crew.

Officials said Russian player Alexander Galimov survived the crash along with a crewmember.

Eleven foreign players were reportedly onboard the jet. A Czech embassy official said Czech players Josef Vasicek, Karel Rachunek and Jan Marek were among those killed.

The plane that crashed was relatively new, built in 1993, and belonged to a small Moscow-based Yak Service company.

Swarms of police and rescue crews rushed to Tunoshna, a picturesque village with a blue-domed church on the banks of the Volga River. One of the plane's engines could be seen poking out of the river and a flotilla of boats combed the water for bodies. Russian rescue workers struggled to heft the bodies of large, strong athletes in stretchers up the muddy, steep riverbank.

One resident, Irina Pryakhova, saw the plane going down, then heard a loud bang and saw a plume of smoke.

"It was wobbling in flight, it was clear that something was wrong," she said. "I saw them pulling bodies to the shore, some still in their seats with seatbelts on."

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin immediately sent the nation's transport minister to the site, 10 miles (15 kilometers) east of Yaroslavl. President Dmitry Medvedev also planned to tour the crash site.

Lokomotiv Yaroslavl is a leading force in Russian hockey and came third in the KHL last year. The team's coach is Canadian Brad McCrimmon, who took over in May. He was most recently an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings, and played for years in the NHL for Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Hartford and Phoenix.

The Russian team also featured several top European players and former NHL stars, including Slovakian forward and national team captain Pavol Demitra, who played in the NHL for the St. Louis Blues and Vancouver Canucks.

Other top names on the team include Russian defensemen Ruslan Salei and Karlis Skrastins, and Swedish goalie Stefan Liv.

The KHL is an international club league that pits together teams from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Slovakia. Lokomotiv was a three-time Russian League champion in 1997, 2002-2003. It took bronze last season.

A cup match between hockey teams Salavat Yulaev and Atlant in the central Russian city of Ufa was called off midway after news of the crash was announced by Konintental Hockey League head Alexander Medvedev. Russian television broadcast images of an empty arena in Ufa as grief-stricken fans abandoned the stadium.

"We will do our best to ensure that hockey in Yaroslavl does not die, and that it continues to live for the people that were on that plane," said Russian Ice Hockey Federation President Vladislav Tretyak.

In recent years, Russia and the other former Soviet republics have had some of the world's worst air traffic safety records. Experts blame the poor safety record on the age of the aircraft, weak government controls, poor pilot training and a cost-cutting mentality.

Medvedev has announced plans to take aging Soviet-built planes out of service starting next year. The short- and medium-range Yak-42 has been in service since 1980 and about 100 are still being used by Russian carriers.

In June, another Russian passenger jet crashed in the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk, killing 47 people. The crash of that Tu-134 plane has been blamed on pilot error.

In other plane crashes involving sports teams, 30 members of the Uruguayan rugby club Old Christians were killed in a crash in the Andes in 1972.

The entire 18-member U.S. figure skating team died in a crash on their way to the 1961 world championships in Brussels.

In 1949, the Torino soccer team lost 18 players near Turin, Italy, while the Munich air crash of 1958 cost eight Manchester United players their lives.
 
It's everywhere in thews. R.I.P., guys :cry:
 
Well done for posting the story GRtak, I was going to post it later in the NHL Thread in Sports or the Aviation Thread or both.

In here is just fine, RIP to all those involved and my thoughs are with the families.
 
:cry: RIP.
 
I'm not a sports sort of person, but RIP. Thoughts go out to the families of the players.
 
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/oscar-winner-cliff-robertson-dies-ny-88-004551369.html

Oscar winner Cliff Robertson dies in NY at 88

NEW YORK (AP) ? Cliff Robertson, the handsome movie actor who played John F. Kennedy in "PT-109," won an Oscar for "Charly" and was famously victimized in a 1977 Hollywood forgery scandal, died Saturday. He was 88.

His secretary of 53 years, Evelyn Christel, said he died in Stony Brook of natural causes a day after his 88th birthday.

Robertson never elevated into the top ranks of leading men, but he remained a popular actor from the mid-1950s into the following century. His later roles included kindly Uncle Ben in the "Spider-Man" movies.

He also gained attention for his second marriage to actress and heiress Dina Merrill, daughter of financier E.F. Hutton and Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post cereal fortune and one of the world's richest women.

His triumph came in 1968 with his Academy Award performance in "Charly," as a mentally disabled man who undergoes medical treatment that makes him a genius ? until a poignant regression to his former state.

"My father was a loving father, devoted friend, dedicated professional and honorable man," daughter Stephanie Saunders said in a statement. "He stood by his family, friends, and colleagues through good times and bad. He made a difference in all our lives and made our world a better place. We will all miss him terribly."

Robertson had created a string of impressive performances in television and on Broadway, but always saw his role played in films by bigger names. His TV performances in "Days of Wine and Roses" and "The Hustler," for example, were filmed with Jack Lemmon and Paul Newman, respectively. Robertson's role in Tennessee Williams' play "Orpheus Descending" was awarded to Marlon Brando in the movie.

Robertson first appeared in the "Charly" story in a TV version, "The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon." Both were based on "Flowers for Algernon," a short story that author Daniel Keyes later revised into a novel. Robertson was determined that this time the big-screen role would not go to another actor.

"I bought the movie rights to the show, and I tried for eight years to persuade a studio to make it," he said in 1968. "Finally I found a new company, ABC Films. I owned 50 percent of the gross, but I gave half of it to Ralph Nelson to direct."

Critic Roger Ebert called Robertson's portrayal "a sensitive, believable one." The motion picture academy agreed, though Robertson was unable to get a break from an overseas movie shoot and was not on hand when his Oscar was announced.

Another memorable movie role, portraying future President Kennedy in the World War II drama "PT-109," presented other challenges.

Released in 1963, it was the first movie to be made about a sitting president, and dozens of actors were considered. Kennedy himself favored Robertson, but he warned him he didn't want someone trying to imitate his distinctive New England accent.

"That was fine with me," the actor commented in 1963. "I think it would have been a mistake for me to say 'Hahvahd' or try to reproduce gestures. Then the audience would have been constantly aware that an actor was impersonating the president."

He added that the film obviously couldn't be done with heroics, "like Errol Flynn gunning down 30 of the enemy. This young naval officer just does things because they have to be done."

After seeing photos of Robertson in costume, Kennedy had one critique: His hair was parted on the wrong side.

The actor dutifully trained his hair to part on the left.

"PT-109" was plagued with problems from the start: script changes, switch of directors, bad weather, snakes and mosquitoes in the Florida Keys where it was filmed.

The troubles were evident on the screen, and critics roundly rapped the film, although Robertson's work won praise.

In 1977, Robertson made the headlines again, this time by blowing the whistle on a Hollywood financial scandal.

He had discovered that David Begelman, president of Columbia Pictures, had forged his signature on a $10,000 salary check, and he called the FBI and the Burbank and Beverly Hills police departments. Hollywood insiders were not happy with the ugly publicity.

"I got phone calls from powerful people who said, 'You've been very fortunate in this business; I'm sure you wouldn't want all this to come to an end,'" Robertson recalled in 1984.

Begelman served time for embezzlement, but he returned to the film business. He committed suicide in 1995.

Robertson said neither the studios nor the networks would hire him for four years.

He supported himself as a spokesman for AT&T until the drought ended in 1981 when he was hired by MGM for "Brainstorm," Natalie Wood's final film.

Born Sept. 9, 1923, in La Jolla, Calif., Robertson was 2 when he was adopted by wealthy parents who named him Clifford Parker Robertson III. After his parents divorced and his mother died, he was reared by his maternal grandmother, whom he adored.

Robertson studied briefly at Antioch College, majoring in journalism, then returned to California and appeared in two small roles in Hollywood movies. Rejected by the services in World War II because of a weak eye, he served in the Merchant Marine.

He set his sights on New York theater, and like dozens of other future stars, profited from the advent of live television drama. His Broadway roles also attracted notice, and after avoiding Hollywood offers for several years, he accepted a contract at Columbia Pictures.

"I think I held the record for the number of times I was on suspension," he remarked in 1969. "I remember once I turned down a B picture, telling the boss, Harry Cohn, I would rather take a suspension. He shouted at me, 'Kid, ya got more guts than brains.' I think old Harry might have been right."

Robertson's first performance for Columbia, "Picnic," was impressive, even though his screen pal, William Holden, stole the girl, Kim Novak. He followed with a tearjerker, "Autumn Leaves," as Joan Crawford's young husband, then a musical, "The Girl Most Likely" with Jane Powell. In 1959 he endeared himself to "Gidget" fans as The Big Kahuna, the mature Malibu surf bum who takes Gidget under his wing.

He remained a busy, versatile leading man through the '60s and '70s, but lacked the intensity of Brando, James Dean and others who brought a new style of acting to the screen.

"I'm not one of the Golden Six," he commented in 1967, referring to the top male stars of that day. "I take what's left over."

"They all know me as a great utility player. 'Good old Cliff,' they say. Someday I'd like to be in there as the starting pitcher."

The chance came with "Charly," but after the usual Oscar flurry, he resumed his utility position.

Robertson had the most success in war movies. His strong presence made him ideal for such films as "The Naked and the Dead," ''Battle of Coral Sea," ''633 Squadron," ''Up From the Beach," ''The Devil's Brigade," ''Too Late the Hero" and "Midway."

He had a passion for flying, and he poured his movie earnings into buying and restoring World War I and II planes. He even entered balloon races, including one in 1964 from the mainland to Catalina Island that ended with him being rescued from the Pacific Ocean.

In 1957, Robertson married Lemmon's ex-wife, Cynthia Stone, and they had a daughter, Stephanie, before splitting in 1960. In 1966, he married Merrill and they had a daughter, Heather. The couple divorced in 1989.

Robertson's funeral is set for Friday in East Hampton.
 
Andy Whitfield, the 39-year-old star of the cable series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," has died.
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/spartacus-star-whitfield-dies-lymphoma-39-004301065.html

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Andy Whitfield, the 39-year-old star of the cable series "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," has died.

Manager Sam Maydew says Whitfield died Sunday of non-Hodgkin Lymphoma in Sydney, Australia.

Whitfield's wife Vashti in a statement called her husband a "beautiful young warrior" who died on a "sunny Sydney morning" in the "arms of his loving wife."

Whitfield ? who was born in Wales and lived in Australia ? was a virtual unknown when he was cast as the title hero in "Spartacus," a hit original series for the Starz network that made waves with its graphic violence and sexuality.

Whitfield was preparing for the second season when he was diagnosed 18 months ago.
 
Top