More at NPR

Two weeks ago I wrote a brief post on Major Andrew Olmsted, who was tragically killed while on active duty in Iraq on January 3rd. His last blog entry at Rocky Mountain News is here, and has become a condolence thread. Once again, the moving post he wrote to be posted in the event of his death is here at Obsidian Wings, where he blogged under the name G’Kar (he was a big fan of Babylon 5). I didn’t know him personally, and I missed much of his earlier work. He didn’t want his death to be used for any political purposes, but by all accounts, he was a thoughtful, generous guy with a good sense of humor, and it’s a tragic loss. Many commentators wondered if there was anything that could be done for his family.

There were so many comments to the original post that Hilzoy opened a new one, “Remembering Andy Olmsted,” with more information and some personal anecdotes. She also posted “How to Help,” which links the many posts about Andy, but also relays:

A member of Andy Olmsted’s family has just written me to say that if people want to do something in honor of him, they can send donations to a fund that has been set up for the four children of CPT Thomas Casey, who served under Andy and was killed while trying to help him. The address is here:

Capt. Thomas Casey Children’s Fund
P.O. Box 1306
Chester, CA 96020

Thanks so much.

The comment thread for the “How to Help” post features still more links to pieces about Andy. Last Thursday, I happened to see his photo on the periodic honor roll of American dead on PBS’ NewsHour, always affecting. Last Friday, I heard NPR’s story on Andy while I was driving home. It’s a good piece, if you want to take a listen. Thanks.

(Cross-posted at Vagabond Scholar)

Andy Olmsted, who blogged as G’Kar at one of my favorite sites, Obsidian Wings, was killed yesterday while on active duty in Iraq.

Hilzoy’s posted the piece Andy wrote to be published in the event of his death. It’s very moving.

Several commenters have asked if there’s any way to do something for his family, and I’ll post an update if there is. If you comment in the Obsidian Wings thread, please read the comment guidelines within the post itself, to respect Andy’s wishes not to politicize his death. I don’t think it’s political, though, to say it’s a tragic loss, it was a jolt to hear, and my thoughts are with his family and friends. Condolences.

Update: A follow post is here.

(Cross-posted at Vagabond Scholar)

Oscar Peterson & Count Basie
“Slow Blues”

Oscar Peterson, who sat atop the world of jazz piano for decades with his driving two-handed swing, technical wizardry and rapid-fire solos, died Sunday of kidney failure, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported. He was 82.

One of jazz’s most recorded musicians, both as leader and accompanist, Peterson came from working class beginnings in Montreal — where his father let him pursue music only if he promised to be “the best” — to become a major influence on generations of top-flight musicians.

Since blasting onto the world stage with a famous appearance at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1949, the beefy high school dropout amassed armfuls of honorary degrees and awards, including a 1997 Grammy for Lifetime Achievement and an International Jazz Hall of Fame Award.

Canada made him a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor, as well as the first living Canadian to be depicted on a stamp.

SHE was flirtatious yet straight-laced and the legendary recipient of some of James Bond’s best one-liners, but the original Miss Money-penny has died at the age of 80.

Lois Maxwell, who appeared in more 007 films than any Bond actor, had been suffering from cancer and died on Saturday.

She starred in 14 Bond films - from Dr No in 1962 to A View To A Kill in 1985 - alongside Sean Connery, George Lazenby and Roger Moore.

The non-consummated sexual chemistry that smoulders between Bond and Moneypenny became one of the enduring features of the 007 series, and included classic banter as:

Bond: “Moneypenny, what gives?”

Moneypenny: “Me, given an ounce of encouragement.”

Or this:

Bond: “What can I bring you from Amsterdam?”

Moneypenny: “A diamond, in a ring.”

Bond: “Would you settle for a tulip?”

Despite only uttering 200 words and appearing on screen for a total of one hour, only Desmond Llewelyn, who played gadget man Q 17 times before his death in 1999, starred in more 007 films.

Maxwell’s first autobiography was entitled I Was Born A Hooker. She was born Lois Hooker in Ontario in 1927, and moved to Hollywood in the 1940s after studying drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Her acting was soon recognised with a Golden Globe for most promising female newcomer in 1947 for her role in the Shirley Temple comedy That Hagen Girl.

She appeared in a Life magazine feature in the 1940s as a promising young starlet, alongside Marilyn Monroe.

She married TV executive Peter Churchill Marriott in 1957 but he died in 1973. His long illness pushed Maxwell to find a job, finally being offered the Moneypenny role.

Maxwell moved to Perth in Western Australia in 2001 to be with her son’s family, where she died in Fremantle Hospital.

Source

By RICHARD SEVERO
New York Times

Jane Wyman, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of a victimized deaf woman in the 1948 movie “Johnny Belinda,” played a fierce matriarch in the 1980s television series “Falcon Crest” and was the first wife of President Ronald Reagan, died Monday at her home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. She was 90.

Her death was confirmed by Jonathan Bernstein, a family spokesman.

Ms. Wyman started her movie career in the 1930s playing wisecracking chorus girls before winning the Academy Award and three other best-actress Oscar nominations between 1947 to 1955.

She rekindled her star power in her 60s, playing Angela Channing, the domineering owner of a Northern California winery in “Falcon Crest,” which ran from 1981 to 1990.

She had met Mr. Reagan in the late 1930s and appeared with him in the comedy “Brother Rat” (1938). They were married in 1940, had a daughter, Maureen, and then adopted a son, Michael, before divorcing in 1948.

Ms. Wyman’s Oscar came for her sensitive performance in “Johnny Belinda” (1948), in which she played a deaf woman whose pregnancy resulting from a rape causes a scandal. Archer Winston, writing in The New York Post, called her performance “surpassingly beautiful.”

“It is all the more beautiful in its accomplishment without words,” he added.

read more HERE

By ALESSANDRA RIZZO
The Associated Press

ROME - Luciano Pavarotti, whose vibrant high C’s and ebullient showmanship made him the most beloved and celebrated tenor since Caruso and one of the few opera singers to win crossover fame as a popular superstar, died Thursday. He was 71.

His manager, Terri Robson, told the AP in an e-mailed statement that Pavarotti died at his home in Modena, Italy, at 5 a.m. local time. Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year and underwent further treatment in August.

“The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness,” the statement said.

For serious fans, the unforced beauty and thrilling urgency of Pavarotti’s voice made him the ideal interpreter of the Italian lyric repertory, especially in the 1960s and ’70s when he first achieved stardom. For millions more, his charismatic performances of standards like “Nessun Dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot” came to represent what opera is all about.

In fact, “Nessun Dorma” was Pavarotti’s last performance, sung at at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in February 2006. His last full’scale concert was in Taipei in, December 2005.

read more HERE

From The Hill:

Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-Ohio) passed away suddenly Tuesday night, according to his office. He was 68.

According to an inter-conference email obtained by The Hill, Gillmor did not show up to the office this morning causing his staff to become concerned. When they went to his apartment to check on him, they found that the lawmaker had passed away.

Capitol Police is currently investigating, but sources believe that the 10-term lawmaker may have had a heart attack.

In November, Gillmor won his district with 57 percent of the vote, holding on to his seat in a year that saw Democrats take over a GOP Senate seat and the governor’s mansion in Ohio.

A special election will be necessary to find someone filling out the rest of the term. While Republicans are favored to retain the seat, such an election will likely be costly and an added burden to the GOP.

from The USA TODAY

NEW YORK (AP) - Leona Helmsley, the hotelier who went to prison as a tax cheat and was reviled as the “queen of mean,” died Monday at age 87.

Helmsley died of heart failure at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn., said her publicist, Howard Rubenstein.

Already experienced in real estate before her marriage, Helmsley helped her husband run a $5 billion empire that included managing the Empire State Building. She became a household name in 1989 when she was tried for tax evasion. The sensational trial included testimony from disgruntled employees who said she terrorized both the menial and the executive help at her homes and hotels.

That image of Helmsley as the “queen of mean” was sealed when a former housekeeper testified that she heard Helmsley say: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”

She denied having said it, but the words followed her for the rest of her life.

Helmsley clearly enjoyed the luxury of their private fortune, flying the globe in the couple’s 100’seat jet with a bedroom suite. The couple’s residences included a nine-room penthouse with a swimming pool overlooking Central Park atop their own Park Lane Hotel; an $8 million estate in Connecticut; a condo in Palm Beach; and a mountaintop hideaway near Phoenix.

read more HERE

Max Roach, a founder of modern jazz who rewrote the rules of drumming in the 1940’s and spent the rest of his career breaking musical barriers and defying listeners- expectations, died early today in Manhattan. He was 83.

R.I.P.

Story here

By BEN WALKER
Associated Press Baseball Writer

NEW YORK - Phil Rizzuto, the Hall of Fame shortstop during the Yankees‘ dynasty years and beloved by a generation of fans for exclaiming “Holy cow!” as a broadcaster, died Tuesday. He was 89.

His death was confirmed by the Yankees. Rizzuto had been in declining health for several years and was living at a nursing home in West Orange, N.J.

Rizzuto, known as “The Scooter,” played for the Yankees throughout the 1940s and ’50s and won seven World Series titles.

Phil Rizzuto was a flashy, diminutive player who could always be counted on for a perfect bunt, a nice slide or a diving catch in a lineup better known for its cornerstone sluggers. He played for 13 seasons alongside the likes of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle.

He stood just 5-foot-6 but was equipped with a productive bat, sure hands and quick feet that earned him his nickname. A leadoff man, Rizzuto was a superb bunter, used to good advantage by the Yankee teams that won 11 pennants and nine World Series between 1941 and 1956.

Rizzuto tried out with the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants when he was 16, but because of his size was dismissed by Dodgers manager Casey Stengel, who told him to “Go get a shoeshine box.” He went on to become one of Stengel’s most dependable players.

read more HERE

United Press International

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 12 (UPI) — TV game show and hotel mogul Merv Griffin, who started his career as a $100 a week singer in San Francisco, died of prostate cancer Sunday.

The 82-year-old underwent had started a number of successful business ventures, including the creation of popular game shows “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune,” Los Angeles- FOX11 reported. He parlayed that into a billion-dollar hotel and casino enterprise.

Marcia Newberger, a spokeswoman for The Griffin Group/Merv Griffin Entertainment said Griffin was recently hospitalized for a recurrence of prostate cancer, which he had been treated successfully for more than 10 years ago.

Griffin also had a brief career on the silver screen before moving to television as the host of “The Merv Griffin Show,” which aired for more than 20 years.

He is survived by his son Tony.

“My father was a visionary,” said Tony Griffin in a statement Sunday. “He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized.”

By JANIE MCCAULEY

SAN FRANCISCO - Bill Walsh, the groundbreaking football coach who won three Super Bowls and perfected the ingenious schemes that became known as the West Coast offense during a Hall of Fame career with the San Francisco 49ers, has died. He was 75.

Walsh died at his Woodside home Monday morning following a long battle with leukemia.

“This is just a tremendous loss for all of us, especially to the Bay Area because of what he meant to the 49ers,” said Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, the player most closely linked to Walsh’s tenure with the team. “For me personally, outside of my dad he was probably the most influential person in my life. I am going to miss him.”

Walsh didn’t become an NFL head coach until 47, and he spent just 10 seasons on the San Francisco sideline. But he left an indelible mark on the United States’ most popular sport, building the once-woebegone 49ers into the most successful team of the 1980s with his innovative offensive strategies and teaching techniques.

The soft’spoken native Californian also produced a legion of coaching disciples that’s still growing today. Many of his former assistants went on to lead their own teams, handing down Walsh’s methods and schemes to dozens more coaches in a tree with innumerable branches.

read more HERE

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran talk show host Tom Snyder, whose idiosyncratic interviewing style bemused and annoyed late-night TV viewers during three decades, has died after a long battle with leukemia, associates said on Monday. He was 71.

The former host of NBC’s “Tomorrow” show and CBS’ “The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder” died on Sunday evening at his home in San Francisco, said his longtime agent and lawyer Ed Hookstratten.

“Tom was a true broadcaster, a rare thing,” said Peter Lassally, executive producer of Snyder’s CBS show, in a statement released by the network. “When he was on the air, he made the camera disappear. It was just you and him, in a room together, having a talk.”

Comedian David Letterman, who took over Snyder’s time slot when Snyder left NBC and later hired Snyder to follow his own show after moving to CBS, said: “Tom was the very thing that all broadcasters long to be — compelling.”

Snyder gained national fame for hosting “Tomorrow” in NBC’s post-”Tonight Show” spot from 1973 to 1982, with some of his more memorable guests including former Beatle John Lennon, Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols and convicted killer Charles Manson.

read more HERE

From Yahoo:

Master filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, one of the greatest artists in cinema history, died Monday at his home on an island off the coast of Sweden. He was 89.

Bergman’s dozens of works combined deep seriousness, indelible imagery and unexpected flashes of humor in finely written, inventively shot explorations of difficult subjects such as plague and madness.

His vision encompassed the extremes of his beloved Sweden: the claustrophobic gloom of unending winter nights, its glowing summer evenings and the bleak magnificence of the Baltic islet of Faro, where the reclusive artist spent his last years.

Once described by Woody Allen as “probably the greatest film artist … since the invention of the motion picture camera,” Bergman first gained international attention with 1955’s “Smiles of a Summer Night,” a romantic comedy that inspired the Stephen Sondheim musical “A Little Night Music.”

His last work, of about 60, was “Saraband,” a made-for-television movie that aired on Swedish public television in December 2003, the year he retired.