Celebrity Death Thread

[Coop]

the axe man cometh...

[Panoptes]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mie9hhQTUM&sns=em"]Acri SNL cowbell - YouTube[/ame]

[Tony G]

Bert Sugar dies of cardiac arrest


Updated: March 25, 2012, 8:39 PM ET
Associated Press

Bert Sugar Dies At 75

Iconic boxing writer and sports historian Bert Sugar has died at the age of 75.Tags: Bert Sugar


MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. -- Bert Sugar, an iconic boxing writer and sports historian who was known for his trademark fedora and ever-present cigar, died Sunday of cardiac arrest. He was 75.
Jennifer Frawley, Sugar's daughter, said his wife, Suzanne, was by his side when he died at Northern Westchester Hospital. Sugar also had been battling lung cancer.
"Just his intelligence and his wit and his sense of humor," Frawley said when asked what she will remember about her father. "He was always worried about people. He was always helping people."
Sugar was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2005. According to the hall's website, Sugar wrote more than 80 books, including "The 100 Greatest Boxers Of All Time." He also appeared in a handful of films, including "The Great White Hype" starring Samuel Jackson.
"Around ringside, it's not going to be the same with Bert not there," said Jack Hirsch, the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
Sugar was born in Washington, D.C., in 1936. He graduated from Maryland and went to law school at Michigan. He passed the bar in his hometown and worked in advertising in New York City before he got into writing in the 1970s.
"Bert was obviously a showman in the way he did things outwardly, very flamboyant, but in quiet moments I found him to be an extremely modest individual," Hirsch said.
Frawley said arrangements for a memorial service are still pending and anyone wishing to honor Sugar should make a donation to the boxing hall.
"He was really a brilliant man," she said.

[DeanUK]

R.I.P. Jocky Wilson

Not well known outside our shores, but very well known over here.

"Jocky Wilson was a one-off that made a nation smile

There was a time in the 1980s when Jocky Wilson made an entire nation smile. Short, tubby and all gums, it felt impossible not to warm to the engaging wee Scot who, on a diet of 100 fags and a gallon of vodka and Coke, could somehow still throw darts of outrageous brilliance."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/oth...ion-smile.html

I met him at an exhibition he did in Oxford. In the first half he breezed past all the opposition, finishing on two double tens instead of double twenty etc. Second half he was taking on the local county champion. Unfortunately during the break he got a little too lubricated, a shrill scream coming from the toilets at one point. They did say he had been in a car accident and was on painkillers. Still signed a poster for me with the word "Pish!!" on it! He was a nice guy.

There was a documentary made last year on him, this trailer has a piece of comedy gold at the end!! (about 50secs in). It's in Scottish with subtitles

http://www.scottishdocinstitute.com/...kirkcaldy-man/

[DanO]

RIP men.

[bimmer84]

Interesting person DeanUK. I had never heard of him until now. He sounds like an original. RIP.

[Tony G]

Earl Scruggs, banjo legend, dies

By Peter Cooper, USA TODAY

Updated 44m ago


Country Music Hall of Famer Earl Scruggs, a singular talent of collective import, died Wednesday at a Nashville hospital. He was 88.

• AP
  Earl Scruggs, a pioneering banjo player and bluegrass icon, died Wednesday.

A quietly affable presence, Scruggs popularized a complex, three-fingered style of playing banjo that transformed the instrument, inspired nearly every banjo player who followed him and became a central element in what is now known as bluegrass music.

But Scruggs' legacy is in no way limited to or defined by bluegrass, a genre that he and partner Lester Flatt dominated as Flatt and Scruggs in the 1950s and '60s: His adaptability and open-minded approach to musicality and to collaboration made him a bridge between genres and generations.
Rather than speak out about the connections between folk and country in the war-torn, politically contentious '60s, he simply showed up at folk festivals and played, at least when he and Flatt weren't at the Grand Ole Opry. During the long-hair/ short-hair skirmishes of the '60s and '70s, he played with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and The Byrds. And when staunch fans of bluegrass ? a genre that would not exist in a recognizable form without Scruggs' banjo ? railed against stylistic experimentation, Scruggs happily jammed away with sax player King Curtis, sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar, piano man Elton John and anyone else whose music he fancied.

"He was the man who melted walls, and he did it without saying three words," said his friend and acolyte Marty Stuart in 2000.

In truth, Scruggs could sometimes be quite loquacious, but he rarely made an utterance that wasn't considered. He said what he thought, but never before he thought.
Asked about recording with Baez during a time when Baez was viewed by many in Nashville as hyper-liberal and undesirable, Scruggs said, "Well, I didn't look at it from a political view. And I thought Joan Baez had one of the best voices of anybody I'd ever heard sing."
Of course, none of that would have been notable or possible had Scruggs not mastered the banjo in a way that no one before him had, and in a way that almost everyone after him sought to.

Before Scruggs came to popular attention in December 1945 when he joined Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys on the Grand Ole Opry, the banjo was as likely to be employed as a clattering comedy prop as it was a serious music-making tool.

Perhaps Scruggs did not "invent" the technique of striking the banjo strings with three right-hand fingers in a way that produced sounds of far greater intricacy than could be summoned through the then-popular "frailing" style of banjo playing. But while others in Scruggs' native North Carolina and in neighboring South Carolina practiced with three fingers, Scruggs perfected and popularized the style.

When a 21-year-old Scruggs auditioned for Monroe, the bandleader heard the final piece in a sound he'd been working to construct. And Scruggs' first performance with the Blue Grass Boys, on Dec. 8, 1945, was the "Big Band of Bluegrass," offering a template ? guitar, mandolin, upright bass, fiddle and Scruggs-style banjo ?still employed today.

During Monroe's performances, Opry boss George D. Hay often introduced Scruggs as "The boy who made the banjo talk." If others had made it speak, Scruggs taught it a master class in what must have seemed a foreign language, offering a vocabulary and clarity of expression never before attained and rescuing the instrument from creeping oblivion.

[DanO]

RIP Earl.

[Islair]

Jim Marshall dies aged 88

The guitar amp pioneer and founder of Marshall Amplification passes away
Si Truss, Thu 5 Apr 2012, 10:41 am BST



Jim Marshall, 1923 - 2012 ? Frank Maechler/dpa/Corbis


Dr Jim Marshall OBE, founder of Marshall Amplification, has died aged 88.

Since the company was founded 50 years ago, Marshall has become one of the most recognisable and iconic names in rock guitar, with the company's unmistakable livery gracing stages across the globe.

Jim Marshall started out as a drum kit retailer but began building amplifiers in the early 1960s, setting out to create a new valve guitar amplifier, using the Fender Bassman circuit as a model. With the sixth prototype, he hit upon 'the Marshall sound'. The rest is history.

By the late '60s, rock artists such as Jimi Hendrix could be seen playing against a backdrop of Marshall stacks. The mid-'70s saw the launch of the first master volume Marshalls and in 1982, the company introduced its now-classic JCM800 model.

Marshall was awarded The Queen's Award For Export in 1984, while 2012 sees the company celebrating 50 years in the business.

Jim Marshall will be remembered alongside the likes of Leo Fender and Les Paul as one of the founding fathers of the modern electric guitar sound and indeed the sound of rock music itself.

In an obituary posted on the company's website, Marshall Amps note: "in addition to the creation of the amps chosen by countless guitar heroes and game changing bands, Jim was also an incredibly humble and generous man who, over the past several decades, has quietly donated many millions of pounds to worthy causes."

It goes without saying that our thoughts at MusicRadar are with Jim's family, friends and colleagues.

An online condolences site will be made available shortly.

http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/jim-marshall-dies-aged-88-538243

[Tony G]

eh? I can't hear you

[DanO]

RIP Jim.

[Sharkbait]

Best amps out there, RIP Jim.

[DeanUK]

RIP Jim
Just spent the day with a friend who played a gig at the Marshall factory for a Christmas do about ten years ago. He said that Jim Marshall got up and sang while they played.

The best Marshall amp :-

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeOXsA8sp_E"]"These go to eleven" - YouTube[/ame]

[Tony G]

Minnesota's Gary Tinsley found dead


Updated: April 6, 2012, 5:45 PM ET
Associated Press

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MINNEAPOLIS -- Gary Tinsley, a Minnesota linebacker who had overcome some personal problems early in his Gophers career and was set to earn his degree in just a few weeks, was found dead in his campus apartment Friday morning, university officials said. He was 22.
Tinsley was found unresponsive in his apartment at Roy Wilkins Hall on the Minneapolis campus, university police chief Greg Hestness said.
[+] EnlargeScott Boehm/Getty ImagesGary Tinsley, 22, was found unresponsive in his apartment on campus Friday. The cause of death wasn't immediately released.


The cause of death wasn't immediately released as authorities awaited autopsy results from the medical examiner. Hestness said police were not aware of any pre-existing medical conditions that may have caused Tinsley's death.
"It's a very, very sad day for our football program and for our young men," an emotional coach Jerry Kill said. "We lost one of ours today in Gary Tinsley, who I know is in a good place."
Tinsley watched a movie with some teammates in his room on Thursday night and went to bed around 11 p.m., a team spokesman said. One of his roommates was brushing his teeth Friday morning when he heard Tinsley's alarm sounding without being turned off. When the teammate went to check, he found Tinsley wasn't breathing.
Emergency officials arrived on the scene minutes after a 911 call, but were not able to resuscitate him. Tinsley was pronounced dead at the scene about 8:15 a.m., Hestness said. Police did not find any signs of foul play, crime or injuries when they arrived, but are treating it as a suspicious death because "the death of a young athlete is out of the ordinary," Hestness said.
"It is always difficult to lose a member of the University family," Minnesota president Eric Kaler said in a statement issued by the school. "Gary was close to graduating from the university's College of Education and Human Development with a major in business and marketing education. In addition, he was an important part of Gopher athletics who was engaged in public service. Our thoughts are with Gary's family and everyone on campus who knew him."
Tinsley was recruited by former coach Tim Brewster from First Coast High School in Jacksonville, Fla. An athletic linebacker with a fiery demeanor, Tinsley ran into several problems off the field early in his time at Minnesota. He was arrested after participating in a brawl near campus during his sophomore season and was suspended from the team in 2010 on suspicion of fleeing police and operating a motorized scooter while intoxicated.
But those around the program had credited Tinsley with maturing over his final two years in school, and he emerged as a team leader who was set to get his degree in business marketing education at commencement this spring. School officials said he will be awarded his diploma posthumously at a ceremony next month.
Big Ten Blog

ESPN.com's Adam Rittenberg and Brian Bennett write about all things Big Ten in the conference blog.
• ESPN.com's WolverineNation
• Blog network: College Football Nation


"Obviously I don't know all of the 750 athletes as well as I'd like. Gary is one that I knew," athletic director Joel Maturi said, his voice shaking. "Sometimes got to know him because of some of the things that he did that I had to deal with. (But it was) great to see his growth. He was set to graduate next month. Tough."
Tinsley completed his eligibility at the end of the 2011 season. He lettered all four years and started every game over his final two seasons with the team. He was No. 2 in total tackles with 87 last season and finished with 198 total tackles for his career. He was not expected to be chosen in the upcoming NFL draft, but was hoping to catch on as a rookie free agent to try to continue his playing career.
"Gary's a young man that has done everything I asked him to do since the day I walked in this door," said Kill, who was hired before last season to take over for the fired Brewster.
It's the latest difficulty for a football program that has seen plenty of it. Just last season, players, coaches and supporters were stunned when Kill collapsed in a seizure on the sidelines during a game. Kill was able to get his condition under control with medication as the season progressed, but it shook the players to see their leader struggle.
Now they're picking up the pieces again, trying to stay together through a sudden tragedy that occurred while the team is in the middle of spring practices. The Gophers canceled Saturday's scheduled practice.
"It's just weird how things work," quarterback MarQueis Gray said. "Last night, we were just texting each other and today he's gone. I guess that's just the way God works. He was a great brother, a great teammate, a great friend. I know he was a great son to his parents. I can only imagine what his parents are feeling right now.
"For myself and the rest of the team, we're very sad that this had to happen. We just need to use it as motivation to continue to stick together."

[Islair]

Calif. artist Thomas Kinkade dies at age 54


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California artist Thomas Kinkade, whose brushwork paintings of idyllic landscapes, cottages and churches were big sellers for dealers across the country, died Friday, a family spokesman said.

Kinkade, 54, died at his home in Los Gatos in the San Francisco Bay Area of what appeared to be natural causes, David Satterfield said.

Kinkade's sentimental paintings, with their scenes of cottages, country gardens and churches in dewy morning light, were beloved by middlebrow America but reviled by the art establishment.

The paintings generally depict tranquil scenes with lush landscaping and streams running nearby. Many contain images from Bible passages.

Kinkade, a self-described devout Christian, claimed to be the nation's most collected living artist. His paintings and spin-off products were said to fetch some $100 million a year in sales, and to be in 10 million homes in the United States.

"I'm a warrior for light," he told the San Jose Mercury News in 2002, in reference to his technical skills but also the medieval practice of using light to symbolize the divine. "With whatever talent and resources I have, I'm trying to bring light to penetrate the darkness many people feel."

Before Kinkade's Media Arts Group went private in the middle of the past decade, the company took in $32 million per quarter from 4,500 dealers across the country 10 years ago, according to the Mercury News. The cost of his paintings range from hundreds of dollars to more than $10,000.

http://news.yahoo.com/calif-artist-thomas-kinkade-dies-age-54-040935368.html

I never really got into his work, but there is no denying that he had talent. RIP Mr. Kinkade.