Hollywood song and dance man Donald O’Connor has died in Los Angeles at the age of 78.
O’Connor started out as a serious actor in the 1930s, but rose to stardom on television opposite a talking mule called Frances, and went on to make a number of films.
But O’Connor is best known for his comedic song and dance routine Make ‘Em Laugh in the classic musical Singin’ in the Rain. … Read full obituary
PARIS - British rock star Robert Palmer, who struck a hit MTV image in the 1980s with his sharp suits and a backup band of mini-skirted, glossy-lipped models on songs like “Addicted to Love,” died Friday in Paris of a heart attack. … Read full obituary
Graham W. Birdsall, Editor UFO Magazine, passed away suddenly on September 19th 2003, from a brain haemorrhage after he was taken ill at his home in Colton, east Leeds. He left a wife wife Christine, daughters Helen and Louise, granddaughter Katy, brother Mark and son-in-law Russel.
Graham was respected the world over by the UFO community. His gifted writing, eloquent presentations and eye for a story helped inform millions of the reality of this fascinating subject we call UFOlogy.
With younger brother Mark he founded — in the early 1980s — the news stand magazine empire, based at Stourton in south Leeds, which published UFO Magazine. The magazine went on to become the world’s best-selling UFO publication, with a readership measured in the tens of thousands. It also staged an annual conference in Leeds. … Read full obituary
Singer, songwriter and actor Sheb Wooley — who also recorded a series of parody hits as Ben Colder — died Tuesday (Sept. 16) at Skyline Medical Center in Nashville. He was 82. Wooley had suffered from leukemia for the past five years, his widow, Linda Dotson, told CMT.com.
Shelby F. Wooley was born April 10, 1921, near Erick, Okla. While a teenager, he worked as a rodeo rider and formed his own band. In the mid-1940s, he performed on radio stations WLAC and WSM in Nashville and subsequently had his own show on the Calumet Radio Network. He signed to Bullet Records in 1946, moving two years later to MGM Records where he remained until 1973. Wooley was a major musical influence on Roger Miller, who was related to him by marriage. Miller was only 11 when Wooley gave him his first fiddle.
Wooley began acting in movies in 1950, appearing first in Rocky Mountain with Errol Flynn. … Read full obituary
MAITLAND, Fla. (AP) — A former Darmouth basketball player suspected of drowning his toddler daughter and attempting to drown his 4-year-old son killed himself Monday by swerving into the path of a tractor trailer, authorities said. His two other children were injured in the crash.
Police believe the drowning and crash that killed Bryan Christopher Randall are the result of a dispute with his estranged wife. In a suicide letter found in the wreckage, Randall wrote he wanted to kill himself and his children because he didn’t approve of how his ex-wife was caring for them, authorities said. …
The crash happened about eight miles north of the small lake where Randall’s 2-year-old daughter Yanna and 4-year-old son Regal were found Sunday morning by a fisherman. The boy was in serious condition Monday, and an autopsy was to be done on his sister. … Read full story
COMPTON – An older sister of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams was shot to death Sunday following a dispute in this Los Angeles suburb, where the sisters grew up but which maintains a grim reputation for street gangs and violence.
Yetunde Price, a registered nurse who owned a beauty salon, was a personal assistant to her famous sisters. …
Price, 31, had been with a man in a sport utility vehicle shortly after midnight and “somehow they had become involved in a confrontation with the local residents,” said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Pena. … Read full story
Gov. Frank O’Bannon, a gentle but powerful leader in his beloved Indiana for more than 30 years, died today in a Chicago hospital where he was treated for a massive stroke.
Lt. Gov. Joe Kernan took the oath as governor in a 6 p.m. ceremony at the Statehouse.
He called for a day of remembrance on Sunday to honor O’Bannon.
O’Bannon, 73, a native of Corydon, died at 11:33 a.m. in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. …
O’Bannon, a Democrat in his second term, was found in his pajamas, unconscious and near death, on the floor of his Chicago hotel room Monday morning before a trade conference. He had suffered a type of stroke that involves bleeding in the brain. … Read full obituary
Johnny Cash, a towering musical figure whose rough, unsteady voice championed the downtrodden and reached across generations with songs like “Ring of Fire,” “I Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison Blues,” died Friday. He was 71.
Cash, known as “The Man in Black,” died at 2 a.m. in Baptist Hospital of complications from diabetes that resulted in respiratory failure, said his manager, Lou Robin. The funeral service will be private, but a public memorial is being planned and the date will be announced later. …
June Carter Cash, who partnered with him in hits such as “Jackson,” and daughter Rosanne Cash also were successful singers. …
John R. Cash was born Feb. 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Ark., one of seven children. When he was 12, his 14-year-old brother and hero, Jack, died after an accident while sawing oak trees into fence posts. The tragedy had a lasting impact on Cash, and he later pointed to it as a possible reason his music was frequently melancholy. … Read full obituary
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June Carter Cash
HOUSTON Sept 11 — Actor Larry Hovis, who played Sgt. Carter in the 1960s television series “Hogan’s Heroes” and later taught drama at Texas State University, has died of cancer at the age of 67, the school said on Wednesday. …
He got into show business early, forming a musical act with his sister at the age of 5, and went on to become a drummer, singer, comedian, writer, game show producer and stage and television actor, the school said. … Read full obituary
BURBANK, Calif. — Actor John Ritter died of a heart problem Thursday after falling ill on the set of his ABC sitcom, his publicist and longtime assistant said.
Ritter … died at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, said his assistant of 22 years, Susan Wilcox.
The cause of death was a dissection of the aorta, the result of an unrecognized flaw in his aorta, said his publicist, Lisa Kasteler. … Read full obituary
Actor John Ritter, who gained fame playing bumbling and lovable characters in a pair of television comedies decades apart, has died, a representative said on Friday.
Details of the circumstances of his death were not immediately available.
Ritter was best known for his portrayal of Jack in the 1970s situation comedy “Three’s Company” and recently he starred in the series “8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter”… Read full obituary
Anna Lindh, who died early yesterday at the age of 46 after a stabbing attack, was one of Sweden’s most popular politicians. A lifelong member of the governing Social Democrats, she had been mentioned as a future party leader. In 1998, when she became foreign minister under Prime Minister Goran Persson, the Swedish press called her “Persson’s crown princess,” seeing her as his likely successor.
She was vehemently pro-European in a country where joining the European Union was a heated issue. She became the leading campaigner in the government’s drive to persuade a somewhat skeptical electorate to replace the Swedish crown with the euro. At the time of her death, Stockholm and, indeed, much of the country, was plastered with posters picturing her under the word “Ja” — signifying the Yes vote she favored in the referendum set for this weekend. …
Anna Maria Lindh was born in Stockholm on June 19, 1957, and earned a law degree from the University of Uppsala. … Read full obituary
SOUR LAKE, Texas (AP) — A former federal prosecutor who successfully defended the government in a lawsuit filed by surviving Branch Davidians was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
A police officer found the body of former U.S. Attorney J. Michael Bradford on Tuesday after checking on an abandoned car in a wooded area near Sour Lake, about 20 miles from Beaumont. … Read full obituary
Charles Bronson, a muscular coal miner from Pennsylvania who became an international film star and archetypal American tough guy, died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 81 and lived in Los Angeles.
The cause was pneumonia, said his publicist, Lori Jonas.
Mr. Bronson was acclaimed in Italy as Il Brutto (The Ugly One) and in France he was one of the monstres sacrés of the cinema. …
…Mr. Bronson was best known for his roles in what were some of Hollywood’s most violent films of the 1970’s. None were more violent than the 1974 movie “Death Wish,” in which Mr. Bronson portrayed an architect turned vigilante who hunts muggers in New York after his wife is killed and his daughter raped by thugs. The critics denounced the film as a vehicle for legitimizing violent behavior. …
…[P]rivately he was upset at his typecasting and longed for more challenging roles. He harbored those feelings even though in interviews he continued to work hard to create an image of toughness. He told interviewers that he had been in fistfights and had been arrested on charges of assault and battery, and he liked to suggest to journalists that his hobby was knife-throwing. But reporters who checked out his stories found no police record, no assault and battery, no predisposition toward violence. In fact, they learned that Mr. Bronson’s hobby was painting and that he was a quiet, personable, gentle man. … Read full obituary
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