Celebrity Death Thread

[Daytona John]

That be true Frank. Those guys hated each other. I can't stand Stern and all his filth.

Imus is at least bearable and has a funny show with some substance. I watch him every now and then.

[calijawn]

Bob Clark, director of Porky’s and A Christmas Story, Dies in a L.A. Car Crash

Bob Clark, the American director and producer who made Canada his home in the 1970s and early 1980s, was killed along with his son Ariel Hanrath-Clark by a drunk driver while travelling on the Pacific Coast Highway north of Los Angeles yesterday. He was 67 years old.

Born Benjamin Clark in New Orleans, he turned down bids to play pro football to complete a drama major at the University of Miami. With the success of his low-budget horror classic Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Clark moved to Montreal in 1973 and came to dominate Canadian commercial filmmaking for a decade. He followed Children with Black Christmas, a prototype slasher film and box-office hit starring Margot Kidder. Then, during a period from 1978 to 1981, he directed Murder by Decree, a Jack the Ripper vs Sherlock Holmes tale starring Christopher Plummer and James Mason, Tribute with Jack Lemmon, and Porky’s, three of the most financially successful films made during the tax-shelter era. Although thedomestic box-office record set by Porky’s was surpassed by Bon Cop, Bad Cop in 2006, it still remains the highest-grossing Canadian film ever made, and executive producer Harold Greenberg built the Astral Media empire on its profits.

In 1983, Bob Clark co-produced, co-wrote and directed A Christmas Story, adapted from Jean Shepherd's In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash. With a voice-over by Shepherd himself, this sweet Norman Rockwell-like portrait of Middle America has become a staple of holiday television viewing – rivaling It's a Wonderful Life for repeated showings – and is remarkably true to the spirit of its original source material without being cloyingly sentimental or phony. Clark won Genie Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Clark returned to the United States in 1984, but he seemed to lose his commercial touch. Rhinstone (1984) with Dolly Parton and Sylvestor Stallone, Turk 182! (1985) with Timothy Huton, Loose Cannons with Gene Hackman and Dan Aykroyd (1990), and Baby Geniuses (1999) with Kathleen Turner all faired poorly at the box office. In 2006, he returned to his original Canadian hit and produced a remake of Black Christmasthat was savaged by the critics.

[Coop]

Sorry to hear of your loss Jerry - yet another reminder of "Here today gone tomorrow"

and while I'm quoting these lyrics out of context of the meaning of the song - they came to mind while reading the last several posts:

There is no terror in my heart
Death is with us all
We suck him down with our first breath
And spit him out as we fall
There is no terror in my heart
No dread of the unknown
Desire for paradise to be...
We love this on our own

[Daytona John]

^ Nice post Coop!

[Larsky]

Cartoonist drew till the end
ADAM BERNSTEIN; The Washington Post
Published: April 9th, 2007 01:00 AM

Johnny Hart, whose comic strips “B.C.” and “The Wizard of Id” used wisecracking cave men and henpecked sorcerers to comment on modern life, and who attracted controversy when he introduced Christianity into his work, died Saturday at his home in Nineveh, N.Y., near Binghamton. He was 76. Hart recently completed treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and died at his drawing table after a stroke, said his wife of 55 years, Bobby Hatcher Hart.

Hart became one of the most popular cartoonists of his era, with a readership estimated at 100 million since starting “B.C.” in 1958 and “The Wizard of Id” in 1964 (with artist Brant Parker). Creators Syndicate distributed both strips, each of which appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers. “B.C.” appears in The News Tribune.

“B.C.” refers to the age “Before Christ” and is the name of Hart’s naive cave-dwelling protagonist, but for years there was little overt religious plotting in the strip.

Among the characters were the one-legged cave man poet, Wiley, and a menagerie of talking animals, including an ant, a clam and a lovelorn dinosaur named Gronk. The female characters were Cute Chick and Fat Broad, names that were anatomically, if not politically, correct.

For a strip whose tone was lighthearted, “B.C” suddenly became controversial in the 1990s when Hart included themes influenced by his fundamental Christianity and literal interpretation of the Bible. He did so sparingly, often around holy days, but its inclusion was perceived by many readers as making him far more frank about Christianity than any of his mainstream contemporaries.

Some newspapers canceled the strip. Others, including The Washington Post, pulled it selectively. On at least one occasion, the Los Angeles Times relocated it to the religion page.

The Times initially canceled the strip – scheduled to run on Palm Sunday 1996 – showing Wiley drafting a poem about Jesus’s suffering on the cross.
Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson told viewers of his “700 Club” show to protest, especially as political cartoons often criticized religion. The uproar that followed led the paper to run the “B.C.” strip on the religion page.

Other work by Hart brought criticism from Jewish and Muslim groups for what they called insensitive and at times offensive themes.

One Easter “B.C.” strip showed a menorah’s candles being extinguished as the candelabra morphs into a cross; the final frame included the words, “It is finished.” To his critics, this symbolized a triumph of Christianity over Judaism, but Hart said it was meant to “pay tribute to both” religions.
Among the recurring characters in “Wizard of Id” were a despotic king and a drunken court jester.

In a 1999 profile of Hart, The Post reported that the artist’s own drinking “got out of hand” over the years before he found solace in religion.

[unknown lions fan]

I don't even glance at the comic strips any more.

Since Bill Watterson and Gary Larson retired (Calvin & Hobbes and Far Side) there's just nothing. I can't believe how unfunny and uncreative most comic strips are.

[Dr. Emmett.L.Brown]

'Get fuzzy' is quickly becoming a new fav of mine along with longtime friend Garfeild....
I did enjoy id and B.C. when I got a chance to read 'em....

[Drew]

I don't even glance at the comic strips any more.

Since Bill Watterson and Gary Larson retired (Calvin & Hobbes and Far Side) there's just nothing. I can't believe how unfunny and uncreative most comic strips are.

It happened about the same way for me. Watterson quit about the time people were placing Calvin on the back of their pickups peeing on various items.

Garfield as well as Mother Goose and Grimm were favorites of mine also.

[-Deborah-]

'Tiny Bubbles' singer Don Ho dies at 76

By JAYMES SONG, Associated Press Writer Sat Apr 14, 10:55 PM ET

HONOLULU - Legendary crooner Don Ho, who entertained tourists for decades wearing raspberry-tinted sunglasses and singing the catchy signature tune "Tiny Bubbles," has died. He was 76.

He died Saturday morning of heart failure, publicist Donna Jung said.

Ho had suffered with heart problems for the past several years, and had a pacemaker installed last fall. In 2005, he underwent an experimental stem cell procedure on his ailing heart in Thailand.

Ho entertained Hollywood's biggest stars and thousands of tourists for four decades. For many, no trip to Hawaii was complete without seeing his Waikiki show ? a mix of songs, jokes, double entendres, Hawaii history and audience participation.

Shows usually started and ended with the same song, "Tiny Bubbles." Ho mostly hummed the song's swaying melody as the audience enthusiastically took over the familiar lyrics: "Tiny bubbles/in the wine/make me happy/make me feel fine."

"I hate that song," he often joked to the crowd. He said he performed it twice because "people my age can't remember if we did it or not."

The son of bar owners, Ho broke into the Waikiki entertainment scene in the early 1960s and, except for short periods, never left. Few artists are more associated with one place.

"Hawaii is my partner," Ho told The Associated Press in 2004.

Donald Tai Loy Ho, who was Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German, was born Aug. 13, 1930, in Honolulu and grew up in the then-rural countryside of Kaneohe.

In high school, he was a star football player and worked for a brief time in a pineapple cannery. After graduating in 1949, he attended Springfield College in Massachusetts on an athletic scholarship. He grew homesick, returned to the islands and ended up graduating from the University of Hawaii in 1953 with a degree in sociology.

Inspired by the U.S. military planes flying in and out of Hawaii during World War II, Ho joined the Air Force. As the Korean War wound down, he piloted transport planes between Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu and Tokyo.

When he returned home and took over his parents' struggling neighborhood bar, Honey's, he put together a band and started performing at his father's request.

"I had no intention of being an entertainer," Ho said. "I just played songs I liked from the radio, and pretty soon that place was jammed. Every weekend there would be lines down the street."

Honey's became a happening place on Oahu, with other Hawaiian musicians stopping in for jam sessions. Ho began to play at various spots in Hawaii, then had a breakout year in 1966, when appearances at the Coconut Grove in Hollywood helped him build a mainland following, and the release of "Tiny Bubbles" gave him his greatest recording success.

Soon he was packing places such as the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Stars such as Lucille Ball, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra were known to be in the audience for Ho's shows.

Ho also became a television star, and hosted the "The Don Ho Show" on ABC from 1976-77. One of Ho's most memorable TV appearances was a 1972 cameo on an episode of "The Brady Bunch."

"I've had too much fun all these years," he said in the 2004 interview. "I feel real guilty about it."

Besides "Tiny Bubbles," his other well-known songs include "I'll Remember You," "With All My Love," and the "Hawaiian Wedding Song." In the final years of his life, Ho's heart problems couldn't keep him away from the stage. He was back performing at the Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel on a limited schedule less than two months after his heart procedure in Thailand. His final performance was Thursday, Jung said.

[Rocky Bleier]

I don't even glance at the comic strips any more.

Since Bill Watterson and Gary Larson retired (Calvin & Hobbes and Far Side) there's just nothing. I can't believe how unfunny and uncreative most comic strips are.

My dad and I would call each other all the time to ask each other if we'd seen a Calvin & Hobbes strip. That kid was classic!

[Dan V]

Heard Don Ho's wife lost a lot of sleep while he was sick, she was a Nappy Ho

[Newbomb Turk]

I think Imus had something to do with Ho's death

[mazenblue07]

ok. i got a friend. he is brazilian and his hair is long. i called him a nappy head ho. hows that make me racist. even if he wasnt my friend. point being, calling someone a nappy head doesnt make you a racist. as for the ho part its a comedy show. kinda

[unknown lions fan]

Have you seen the entire collection hardbound Rocky? I have it - it's a heirloom quality piece of work.

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Calvin-Hobbes/dp/0740748475/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-9348985-5510516?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176686257&sr=8-1

[SeattleLionsFan]

Nappy is a racial epithet. but Imus's bigger sin was not being funny...at all...even a little bit.