Celebrity Death Thread

[DanO]

RIP.

GO LIONS "07" !!!!!!!

[Panoptes]

WOW! I loved this guys standup act (every single one of them):

Comedian Richard Jeni Dies of Apparent Suicide
*Monday, March 12, 2007, AP

LOS ANGELES ? Richard Jeni, a standup comedian who played to sold-out crowds, was a regular on the "Tonight Show" and appeared in movies, died of a gunshot wound in an apparent suicide, police said Sunday.

Police found the 49-year-old comedian alive but gravely injured in a West Hollywood home when they responded to a call Saturday morning from Jeni's girlfriend, Los Angeles Police Officer Norma Eisenman said.

Eisenman said the caller told police: "My boyfriend shot himself in the face."

Jeni died at a nearby hospital.

Eisenman said suicide had not been officially confirmed and the investigation was continuing. An autopsy on Jeni would be done Monday, said Lt. Fred Corral from the investigation division of the coroner's office.

Jeni regularly toured the country with a standup act and had starred in several HBO comedy specials, most recently "A Big Steaming Pile of Me" during the 2005-06 season.

Another HBO special, "Platypus Man," won a Cable ACE award for best standup comedy special, and formed the basis for his UPN sitcom of the same name, which ran for one season.

Jeni's movie credits included "The Mask," in which he played Jim Carrey's best friend, "The Aristocrats," "National Lampoon's Dad's Week Off," and "An Alan Smithee Film: Burn, Hollywood, Burn."

He had guest appearances in the TV shows "Everybody Hates Chris," "Married: With Children," and updated versions of the game shows "Hollywood Squares" and "Match Game."

Frazer Smith, standup comedian who often opened for Jeni and the emcee at the Ice House, where Jeni often performed, said young comedians looked up to him.

"He was probably one of the best standup comedians in the last 50 years," said Smith. "He had tons and tons of material. He was looked up to by all the young comedians, a total pro."

The Brooklyn-born comic first received national attention in 1990 with the Showtime special "Richard Jeni: Boy From New York City." Two years later, his "Crazy From the Heat" special attracted the highest ratings in Showtime's history.

Jeni became a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show" during Johnny Carson's reign and continued to appear after Jay Leno took over as host.

He also wrote comic material for the 2005 Academy Awards, which was hosted by his friend Chris Rock.

[calijawn]

Vegas' Stardust casino imploded
By Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer

LAS VEGAS ? The Stardust is now just a memory. The casino-hotel on the Las Vegas Strip was imploded early Tuesday in a hail of fireworks to make way for Boyd Gaming Corp.'s $4.4 billion megaresort Echelon.

Hundreds of people partied beneath tents and on makeshift patios before Boyd chairman Bill Boyd's four grandsons pushed a plunger to detonate the building. The blast generated a massive dust cloud that chased the revelers into cars, buses and nearby casinos.

"It hurts. We cried," said Sheila Navarro, 51, a school supplies buyer from Oxnard, Calif., who took shelter in the nearby Frontier casino-hotel. She came with three sisters, her mother, an aunt and a brother-in-law to say farewell to the casino she's gambled at for more than 30 years.

"It's very hard for me to find another casino to go to," she said. "Maybe in two years, three years, I'll have different feelings, but right now, my heart is broken."

The casino opened July 2, 1958, billing itself as the world's largest resort hotel with 1,032 rooms. It was credited with being Las Vegas' first mass-market casino, thanks to cheap rates and loss-leading food and drinks.

Bob Boughner, Echelon Resorts' chief executive, said while the Stardust was a favorite of the nostalgia crowd, it was missing out on younger patrons and those who come to Las Vegas for conventions.

For many, the Stardust represented the most accessible place to stay in a city that gives VIP treatment to the biggest gamblers. But the concept of discounting rates to keep people coming is rapidly fading from the Las Vegas Strip as many casinos nowadays make more revenue from hotel rooms, clubs, shows and cuisine than from gambling.

"There was this implicit idea that invisible high rollers came in and funded everything, so that Mr. and Mrs. America could have a steak for $2 and see Frank Sinatra for the price of a drink," said David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.

"Now you can build a 7,000-room hotel and charge $300 a night for rooms," he said. "With slots being so big, it is all the people losing $200 per trip that are driving the growth."

The implosion turned a 32-story tower, gutted to its barest concrete and steel over the past three months, into the tallest building ever felled on the Strip.

LVI Services Inc. used 428 pounds of explosives to destroy the casino's two towers. Twenty water cannons sprayed the dust cloud, which blanketed the area in gray ash, and the main drag of the 24-hour gambling mecca was temporarily shut down.

The clean up of the site was expected to take up to two months.

The Stardust became as famous for its stellar, 188-foot sign and marquee as its mob connections. The Strip institution was the inspiration for the 1995 movie "Casino," in which Robert De Niro played a character inspired by Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal, who ran the casino-hotel in the mid-1970s.

But as regulators cracked down on skimming in later years, Boyd was brought in as an operator in 1983 and bought the Stardust in 1985 when the owners lost their gambling license.

In the next two decades, the property's luster began to fade. "Lido de Paris," the showgirl extravaganza that starred illusionists Siegfried and Roy for more than a decade, wrapped up in 1991 after a 32-year run.

Crooner Wayne Newton brought nostalgia back to the aging clientele in 2000 but called it a wrap in April 2005.

And in each of last year's three quarters before its official closure Nov. 1, the Stardust made less money than the previous year.

The Echelon is to open in late 2010 with more than 5,000 hotel rooms, a production theater, concert venue, shopping mall and more than 1 million square feet of meeting space.

[Panoptes]

Richard Jeni gets no love as a nice guy semi-famous comedian, yet Anna Nicole Skank gets everyone all frothed up with entertainment talk.

Sad

[mason reese]

Richard Jeni gets no love as a nice guy semi-famous comedian, yet Anna Nicole Skank gets everyone all frothed up with entertainment talk.

Sad

no mystery...no boobs.

[gjdodger]

Jeni gave us memories. Anna Nicole...well...

[-Deborah-]

Jesus Gonz. Give folks a chance to see the fucking thread, eh? It's the first time I've wandered in to this thread in a while.

I don't really remember the guy, but I know how devastating suicide can be. Sure seems the creative types turn to that more than anyone else. My sympathy to his loved ones.

[-Deborah-]

I have a friend who is a comedian and he says the rumor around this is that Jeni found out he had a terminal illness, donated a bunch of money to charity, and then killed himself. No clue if that has any basis in truth.

[mason reese]

His website has a letter from his family saying he was diagnosed with severe depression.

Did Richard Jeni really give anybody memories other than "Hey, your that one guy who was on that one show".

[Newbomb Turk]

I thought he was really good in The Mask..........

seemed likable, but suicide is a horrible thing to do to the people who love you.

[YT]

RIP to Mr. Jeni

My deepest condolances to his family and friends.

[calijawn]

Word now has it that Brad Delp was also a suicide...

[YT]

^
Saw that last night. Very sad.

[DanO]

What's up with these entertainers committing suicide. I guess money can't buy happiness. It gives you a head start though. :-)

GO LIONS "07" !!!!!!!

[Newbomb Turk]

I guess it's more than a feeling.......