The Morgue - 2011

Discussion Open Forum
1

Here’s a somewhat famous person. I think that makes this first and the mods can whack everything between here and the first post. :aiyo:


Ann Francis, 80, American actress


http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-anne-francis-20110103,0,2031697.story

[quote]Anne Francis, who costarred in the 1950s science-fiction classic “Forbidden Planet” and later played the title role in “Honey West,” the mid-1960s TV series about a sexy female private detective with a pet ocelot, died Sunday [1/2/2011]. She was 80.

Francis, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007 and underwent surgery and chemotherapy, died of complications of pancreatic cancer at a retirement home in Santa Barbara, said Jane Uemura, her daughter. Friends and family members were with her, said a family spokeswoman, Melissa Fitch.

A shapely blond with a signature beauty mark next to her lower lip, Francis was a former child model and radio actress when she first came to notice on the big screen in the early 1950s.[/quote]

In almost-but-not-quite territory, two of our best friends returned home to their apartment at 3:20 am on 1/1 to discover that a fire had burned the building down. Their dog was missing, but more importantly, a 32-year old man and four children under the age of 12 died in the fire; the children’s mother somehow escaped the blaze with just minor burns but neighbors had to physically restrain her to keep her from going back through the flames for her kids when she realized they were not with her. Apparently, she and her boyfriend had been smoking pot in the bathroom while the kids played in the living room. The pot ashes were not dealt with correctly, and at about 1:30 in the morning, the place burst into flames after smoldering for a while.

Anyway, Bernardo and Katja are alive, and a fire department inspector working the case today found their dog; Alita came running up to him, tail wagging but afraid, and the inspector took her to the manager’s office. I am so glad that my friends went to that party as given the damage to their apartment and the speed with which the fire tore through the building, they would likely have been overcome by smoke or burned to death. :astonished:

2

Pete Postlethwaite
bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12106753

3

[quote=“irishstu”]Pete Postlethwaite
bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12106753[/quote]
Oh shame. He was awesome in that Irish flick. I don’t recall it’s name.

4

I see what you did there.

In the Name of the Father

5

[quote=“irishstu”]Pete Postlethwaite
bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12106753

[/quote]
Ah feck. One of the good ones.

6

[quote=“Taffy”][quote=“irishstu”]Pete Postlethwaite
bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12106753

[/quote]
Ah feck. One of the good ones.[/quote]
Damn I always liked him. He came across as a really down to Earth kind of bloke that you could just chat with down the pub.

Very talented actor too.

7

I watched Brassed Off just the other night. As Taffy says, one of the good ones.

8

Damn- just watched Inception and an hour later I find out he passed away. First saw him in ‘The Usual Suspects’- a great film and liked him from then on.

9

Way memorable as the psychopath Obadiah Hakeswill in the Sharpe series.

RIP, Pete Postlethwaite

10

I’d forgotten how good he was in Sharpe.

11

[quote=“irishstu”]Pete Postlethwaite
bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12106753[/quote]
Saw that earlier. Bummer. Great actor and he wasn’t even that old. Cancer sucks.

RIP Mr. Postlethwaite.

12

Gerry Rafferty dies at age of 63

[quote]Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty has died at the age of 63 after suffering a long illness.

His career high came in the 1970s and included the anthemic Baker Street and Stuck in the Middle with You, recorded with his band Stealers Wheel.[/quote]

13

Character actor Bill Erwin has died at 96. His film, stage, and TV parts spanned half a century. But he gained the most attention for his guest appearance on a “Seinfeld” episode in 1993 titled “Old Man.”

Here’s a clip from the Seinfeld episode he was in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm6BOtPwXZs&feature=related

14

bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12121506
Dick King-Smith children’s author.
I probably read all his books when I was a kid

15

[quote=“bismarck”]Character actor Bill Erwin has died at 96. His film, stage, and TV parts spanned half a century. But he gained the most attention for his guest appearance on a “Seinfeld” episode in 1993 titled “Old Man.”

Here’s a clip from the Seinfeld episode he was in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wm6BOtPwXZs&feature=related
[/quote]
Oh man! That’s one of my favorite episodes. RIP Erwin.

16

[quote=“Funk500”]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12121506
Dick King-Smith children’s author.
I probably read all his books when I was a kid[/quote]

Bummer. I just mentioned him this morning in that thread on books for 6/7/8 year olds. My daughter loved his book Martin’s Mice.

Speaking of deaths, how about that Pentagon official who was murdered and his body found in a landfill? Sure, it could be a random act of violence, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to have been something much bigger.

[quote]A slain former aide to three U.S. presidents and leading voice for Vietnam War veterans was recorded on a security camera limping and disoriented 14 hours before his body was found in a Delaware dump, police said.

Videotape captured John “Jack” Wheeler inside an office building in downtown Wilmington, Del., around 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 30, police said.

A worker at a Wilmington landfill saw Mr. Wheeler’s body tumble from a garbage truck at 10 a.m. the next morning. Police determined that the truck made all 10 of its pickups that morning at commercial Dumpsters in Newark, Del., including a bank, a library, a car dealership and a McDonald’s. Those stores are about 12 miles from where Mr. Wheeler was last seen alive.

Police have said Mr. Wheeler’s case was a homicide, but have not said how or why he was killed. His body was identified Monday.

Another videotape taken on the evening of Dec. 29 from a courthouse parking garage in New Castle, Del., showed Mr. Wheeler holding one of his shoes and wearing a rumpled suit.

Mr. Wheeler, 66 years old, a defense contractor who was pivotal in the creation of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington and an aide to Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and George W. Bush, lived with his wife in New Castle.

The Dec. 29 video, which didn’t contain audio, shows Mr. Wheeler talking to the garage’s parking attendant, who was behind a plexiglass window. Mr. Wheeler then shuffled down the hall, turned around, threw both arms into the air and shuffled back toward the attendant. He then calmly entered an elevator.

The attendant said Mr. Wheeler was trying to pay for parking, even though his car wasn’t parked there.

Police said his car was parked in his usual spot . . .[/quote]
online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 … lenews_wsj

17

Ryne Duren

Yankee pitcher from 1958-1961.

100 mph fastball, Coke-bottle eyeglasses, serious drinking problem.

“Ryne could throw the heck out of the ball,” Yogi Berra told Major League Baseball’s Web site. “He threw fear in some hitters. I remember he had several pair of glasses, but it didn’t seem like he saw good in any of them.”

RIP

18

[quote]Former Army Maj. Richard D. Winters, the inspiration for the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers,” died recently after a battle with Parkinson’s disease. The men he led remember him as a great leader (here’s what “Wild Bill” Guarnere said) who took care of his men (here’s what Edward Heffron said). Winters was 91.
[/quote]
:frowning:

January 21, 1918 - January 2, 2011

19

Yep, just saw Major Dick Winters died. Sad day as another WWII Vet goes into the void.

If even half of what he did, as documented in Band of Brothers, was true then he was still a great man, a hero, a magnificent officer and the like of which we won’t easily see again. The kind of officer other officers would aspire to be like, the kind of man common soldiers would follow into hell and back. Rest in peace, Major.


Highlights of his (WWII) military career:
Enlisted in the US Army on Aug. 25, 1941.
Commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in 1942.
Assigned to the 506th regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, Easy Company.
In France on D-Day, June 6, 1944.
Led the takeover of a German artillery bunker on Utah Beach - Awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the second-highest honor an American soldier can receive.
Fought near the Belgian town of Foy during the Battle of the Bulge.
Liberated the German concentration camp at Dachau.
Occupied Hitler’s mountainside retreat, Eagle’s Nest.

Some Youtube videos featuring Major Winters and some clips of Band of Brothers.

[quote]This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.[/quote]

20

Film director Peter Yates.

His films included Breaking Away (a favorite of mine), The Dresser (another good one), and the Bubba-licious Bullitt.