BREAKING: Sometimes Famous People Die

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

[JoeP]

Is it wrong of me to hope that he has an open-coffin viewing ... with a chestburster prop?

[The Man]

Gordon Willis, cinematographer who worked on films such as all of the Godfather films, Manhattan, Annie Hall, All the President's Men, and dozens of others.

[Hermit]

Three time world formula one champion, the Australian born Jack Brabham, has died, aged 88. He won in 1959 and again in 1960 driving for Cooper, the first car in its class to feature an engine located behind the driver rather than in front. In 1966 he became the first and only world champion to win in a car of a driver's own design. The following year his Kiwi team mate Denny Hulme became world champ in another Brabham-Repco. Jack finished up second.

While I agree with his vociferously expressed disdain for the increasingly technical sophistication that happened after his retirement in 1970 insofar as it reduced the role of the skill of a driver in who won, I think he kind of ignored that the same development increased safety. Three drivers were killed racing or testing formula one Brabhams alone. Since Ayrton Senna's death 20 years ago there were zero fatalities among drivers while testing, qualifying or racing in the context of F1 championships even though the number of accidents per race actually increased.

[Ari]

Sasha Shulgin (along with his wife Ann) introduced the world to MDMA (ecstasy) developed a large class of psychedelic drugs (2Cs), published methods for creating them and personally tested almost everything he created noting the dangers and effects.

Besides being responsible for a large part of the rave and psychedelic culture it's sad that he will never get to see his drugs put to wider therapeutic use as MDMA is starting to become accepted in psychiatric sessions. While users of MDMA report feeling happy and connected current studies show that MDMA doesn't actually increase happiness but decreases fear, allowing their natural happiness to come through, which is partly why it's so effective in therapy sessions.

Sasha Shulgin, "Godfather of Ecstasy," Dead at 88
(He had been sick for awhile and was in hospice care)

[lisarea]

BBC News - Rik Mayall: Tributes to Young Ones star

He was only 56.

[livius drusus]

Not Lord Flashheart.

[lisarea]

The people's poet is dead - YouTube

[BrotherMan]

Oh no, guys.



Rue McClanahan passes at 76

McClanahan had an active career in off-Broadway and regional stages in the 1960s before she was tapped for TV in the 1970s for the key best-friend character on the hit series "Maude," starring Beatrice Arthur. After that series ended in 1978, McClanahan landed the role as Aunt Fran on "Mama's Family" in 1983.

But her most loved role came in 1985 when she co-starred with Arthur, Betty White and Estelle Getty in "The Golden Girls," a runaway hit that broke the sitcom mold by focusing on the foibles of four aging - and frequently eccentric - women living together in Miami.

"Golden Girls" aimed to show "that when people mature, they add layers," she told The New York Times in 1985. "They don't turn into other creatures. The truth is we all still have our child, our adolescent, and your young woman living in us."

Blanche, who called her father "Big Daddy," was a frequent target of roommates Dorothy, Rose and the outspoken Sophia (Getty), who would fire off zingers at Blanche such as, "Your life's an open blouse."

Fellow "Golden Girl" Betty White called McClanahan a close and dear friend.

"I treasured our relationship," said White, who was working on the set of her TV Land comedy "Hot in Cleveland" on Thursday. "It hurts more than I even thought it would, if that's even possible."

Even though I was just an adolescent bort, Blanche was my favorite Golden Girl.

[Ensign Steve]

[livius drusus]

Bort, honey, that happened 4 years ago.

[Ensign Steve]

Yeah well I didn't know!

[BrotherMan]

:sneak:

Because of SYNCHRONICITY, I have to say this. I forget what I was listening to yesterday. Somebody mentioned ... either the Golden Girls show itself or one of the ladies. And I even thought to myself, aww, Betty is the last one standing, right. And then some site somewhere in my feed posted that very article linked above and I was all -omg that's just fucking weird that just today I was thinking about that.



And I'm just used to sites not even showing their posted on dates that I saw the UPDATE 1:07PM thing. JUST UGH.

I'm just going to go away now and remember not to forget the face of my father.

[Ensign Steve]

BREAKING

[Stormlight]

Why is everyone posting about Rue McClanahan’s death when she died four years ago? - The Washington Post

[The Man]

Casey Kasem Dead at 82 - ABC News

R.I.P.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Ruby Dee died as well.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Tony Gwynn died. RIP, Mr. Padre

[Dingfod]

Actor Eli Wallach died at age 98 yesterday. He was born to Polish Jew immigrant parents who ran a candy store in the middle of an Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn. Wallach graduated from the University of Texas in 1936 with a degree in History and went on to get a Masters in Education at City College of NYC. While at UT he was in a stage play with classmates Ann Sheridan and Walter Cronkite. Wallach served in the Army medical corps during WW2, first in Hawaii, then in Africa and France. He and fellow soldiers wrote a comedy play called Is This the Army? in which Wallach played Adolf Hitler. After the war he took acting classes with Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and his future wife Anne Jackson. He perhaps best known for his role as the bandit Tuco in the Spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly with Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef.

[SharonDee]

I was just thinking of Mr Wallach recently, because I'd been remembering the spaghetti westerns. My thought, "Wow, I think that guy is still alive, too."

No more.

[Watser?]

He was ugly but at least he wasn't bad.

[livius drusus]

Wallach's Tuco bears the distinction of being the least blackfacey of all the white-people-play-minorities roles Hollywood has inflicted upon us. He just got an actual tan instead of slapping on the brown pancake.

[Stormlight]

Originally Posted by The Man

Casey Kasem Dead at 82 - ABC News

R.I.P.

Damn. Casey Kasem. When i grew up I listened to his "American Top 40" on AFN.

[curses]

Bobby Womack Dead: Soul Singer Dies at 70 | Music News | Rolling Stone

RIP

(never mind this is the opening to Tarantino's Jackie Brown. First link I found)

Bobby Womack - Across 110th Street - YouTube

[The Man]

David Legeno, a.k.a. Fenrir Greyback in the Harry Potter films, age 50.

Rosemary Murphy, a.k.a Maudie Atkinson in To Kill a Mockingbird, age 89.

R.I.P. to both of them