Obituaries Notable people that have passed

GRtak

Forum Addict
Joined
Sep 6, 2008
Messages
26,323
Location
Michigan USA
It has been mentioned that we could use an obituary thread, it would be nice if it was pinned to the top, but not an absolute need.


Owsley Stanley: The King of LSD


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/us/15stanley.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss

Owsley Stanley, Artisan of Acid, Is Dead at 76

Owsley Stanley, the prodigiously gifted applied chemist to the stars, who made LSD in quantity for the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Ken Kesey and other avatars of the psychedelic ?60s, died on Sunday in a car accident in Australia. He was 76 and lived in the bush near Cairns, in the Australian state of Queensland.

His car swerved off a highway and down an embankment before hitting trees near Mareeba, a town in Queensland, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Stanley?s wife, Sheilah, was injured in the accident.
 
Do we need to kill the celebrity ourselves first or are we allowed to post deaths we aren't responsible for? :p
 
Michael Gough

gough_1850988f.jpg


Poised and distinguished-looking, with an eloquent speaking voice and a long-lipped sneer, Gough deployed his talent for depicting seducers, serial killers and other well-bred villains to menacing effect as a deranged writer in Herman Cohen?s Horrors of the Black Museum (1959), a film which begins with a girl being killed by binoculars with steel spikes which shoot out from the eyepieces. Gough (whom Cohen referred to as ?the cheaper version of Vincent Price?) also featured in Black Zoo (1963), Berserk (1967) and Trog (1970), and Konga (1961), as a mad scientist who turns a baby chimpanzee into a giant gorilla.

In his middle and later years, Gough tended to be cast as the archetypal remote British gentleman. He played Anthony Eden in the Ian Curteis television play Suez 1956 (1979) and Livingstone in the epic television series The Search for the Nile. But when Tim Burton was looking to cast Batman?s butler it was Gough?s role in schlock horror films, so bad that Burton had been unable to forget them, that commended him: ?I know that man, he?s in terrible films!? Gough recalled Burton exclaiming.

Beginning with Batman (1989), Gough played Alfred Pennyworth in four Batman films and continued to work with Burton on such films as Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Alice In Wonderland. Yet he always regarded the stage as his true calling: ?I?m essentially a jobbing actor. If I?m out of work, I?ll be the back end of a donkey.?

Michael Gough was born in Malaya on November 23 1916 and educated at Rose Hill School, Tunbridge Wells, and Durham College. He dropped out of Wye Agricultural College aged 19 to join the Old Vic Theatre School, playing small parts with the Old Vic Company and appearing in 1937 on Broadway in Love of Women.

His first West End work was in Harcourt William?s production of Dorothy Sayers? The Zeal of Thy House. After the war he rejoined the Old Vic at its wartime refuge, the Liverpool Playhouse, acted at Oxford Playhouse and soon became a name to be reckoned with on the London stage, his swift rise to the top of his profession sometimes attributed to his resemblance to Stephan Haggard, a popular young actor who had been killed on active service.

It was his vigorous role in Frederick Lonsdale?s But For the Grace of God (1946) that made him famous overnight. He played a blackmailer righteously incensed by an American?s love affair with an Englishwoman while her husband was on active service. The play featured a violent encounter between blackmailer and victim (played by Hugh McDermott), at the end of which Gough supposedly died from a broken neck. In fact, during the play?s run, Gough suffered three broken ribs, an injury to the base of his spine and a cut lip, prompting the management to engage two professional boxers to teach him how to avoid injuries.

Among numerous West End productions in which he appeared over 40 years, one of Gough?s biggest successes was as Gregers Werle in Ibsen?s Wild Duck (1955), ?oozing sincerity,? as Kenneth Tynan put it, ?while letting the man?s neuroses seep through the facade?.

In 1975 he joined the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic and later on the South Bank, where his roles included the Governor in Phaedra Britannica, and Glen, the dying writer, in Osborne?s Watch It Come Down.

Towards the end of his theatrical career he won ecstatic reviews for a hilarious performance in Alan Ayckbourn?s Bedroom Farce (1977) as a downtrodden husband frustrated in his attempts to celebrate his wedding anniversary by sharing a supper of pilchards on toast in bed with his wife. The play transferred to New York, winning Gough a Tony award. He also earned enthusiastic reviews for his portrayal of Baron von Epp in A Patriot For Me (1983, Haymarket), supervising a military ?drag? ball in the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As the curtain rose, Gough was to be seen as an elderly ?Queen Alexandra?, clad in a sumptuous gown with handbag, elbow-length gloves, fan and a tiara, getting ready to dance with Alan Bates?s Colonel Redl.

Michael Gough was married four times. His first three marriages, to Anneke Wills (who played Dr Who?s sidekick Polly during the 1960s), Anne Leon and Diana Graves, were dissolved. He is survived by his fourth wife, Henrietta, and by a daughter and two sons.
 
I'm guessing they do rather a lot of cocaine, which places quite a strain on the heart.
 
he did smoke MASSIVE amounts of weed also, dont know how bad it is for the heart though, cant be healthy
 
^it should counter the effects of the coke

but anyone who smokes weed and snorts coke at the same time is a moron!

could as well eat deep fried diet pills!
 
Dame Elizabeth Taylor, one of the 20th Century's biggest movie stars, has died in Los Angeles at the age of 79.

The double Oscar-winning actress had a long history of ill health and was being treated for symptoms of congestive heart failure.

Her four children were with her when she died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, her publicist said. (BBC)

BBC News - Obituary: Elizabeth Taylor

BBC News said:
With her timeless beauty, on-screen dramas and off-screen theatrics, Elizabeth Taylor was the epitome of Hollywood excess.

Her glamour made her the most highly paid actress of her day and for a long time the most publicised.

Her film career lasted for more than half a century but her private life was more complicated than any storyline, and her romances kept her in the headlines.


more follows

One of the last of the Hollywood greats. :(
 
My o' my was she attractive in her prime...those violet eyes.
 
RIP Johnny Pearson.

While his name may not be familiar to a decent number of people, the same cannot be said for his musical compositions:



[video=youtube;X4vrd-yxqtg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4vrd-yxqtg[/video]

[video=youtube;JDaLy8-P3r8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDaLy8-P3r8[/video]

 
Please join me in Remembering YET ANOTHER great icon of the entertainment community. The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes to the belly. He was 71. Dough boy was survived by his wife Play Dough, three children, John Dough, Jane Dough, and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the Oven. The Funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MWF
The world of automotive journalism lost an icon. RIP David E. Davis Jr. :(

Automobile Magazine founder, longtime Car & Driver editor, and automotive journalism patriarch David E. Davis Jr. has died at age 80.

Davis, who made his name writing for Car & Driver, had recently been battling bladder cancer and underwent bladder surgery a few days ago. He died from complications on Sunday, March 27.

After a long career at Car & Driver, Davis left to create Automobile Magazine, where we?re celebrating our 25th anniversary this year. Davis later left Automobile to guide online magazine Winding Road, but returned to Car & Driver as a columnist in 2009.

Davis was a lifelong car enthusiast who worked in all corners of the industry, from racing to advertising to editorial and publishing. He was well-regarded in the industry for the profound impact his work had on many modern car journalists, not to mention readers.

Davis leaves behind a wife, Jeannie, a daughter, and two sons. Services are pending.

Everyone at Automobile sends our deepest condolences to the Davis family. David will be greatly missed.

The man:
 
Oh man...that is a huge bummer. I didn't like some of his writings, but what I did like, I really REALLY liked.
 
Oh man...that is a huge bummer. I didn't like some of his writings, but what I did like, I really REALLY liked.

Same here. used to love Automobile
 
I didn't like some of his writings, but what I did like, I really REALLY liked.

Agreed. That pretty much sums DED Jr. up perfectly. Like him or not, his influence in the world of automotive journalism is un-freaking-deniable.
 
RIP Edward Stobart

Haulage magnate Edward Stobart dies, aged 56

_51944274_51944273.jpg


Haulage magnate Edward Stobart, who built up the Eddie Stobart lorry empire and ran it for more than 30 years, has died at the age of 56.

He suffered what were described as "heart problems" on Wednesday and died this morning in hospital in Coventry.

He took the business started by his father Eddie and built it into the best known haulage company in the UK.

Mr Stobart sold the firm to his brother William and business partner Andrew Tinkler in 2004.

The business began as a local company delivering fertiliser, and in the early days drivers wore collars and ties, which was unusual at the time.

They were also instructed to wave back and honk their horn when signalled by a passer-by.

There are now more than 1,000 of the distinctive trucks, with each cabin given a woman's name.

The firm even has its own fan club with more than 25,000 members.

The Stobart Group said in a statement: "Our thoughts are with Edward's wife Mandy, his children and family at this difficult time."

Ann Preston, chair of haulage company, Preston's of Potto, paid tribute to what she described as a "very, very kind man".

"He was very passionate about road transport," she said.

"From a young boy he didn't want to do anything else."
 
Eddie Stobart, something can be said for a man able to create a hauling company that is recognised and respected by drivers the whole continent over.

R.I.P Edward.
 
Jean Bartik, Software Pioneer, Dies at 86

Jean Jennings Bartik, one of the first computer programmers and a pioneering forerunner in a technology that came to be known as software, died on March 23 at a nursing home in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. She was 86.

...

Ms. Bartik was the last surviving member of the group of women who programmed the Eniac, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, which is credited as the first all-electronic digital computer.
 
Top