RIP -- 2020 Going Into 2021 Edition

[Bact PhD]

Ray Perkins, former coach of Alabama, the NY Giants, and the Tampa Bay Bucs (1), 79.

Ray Perkins, the former Alabama receiver who replaced Bear Bryant as Crimson Tide’s coach and started the transition with the New York Giants that led to two Super Bowl titles, died Wednesday in Tuscaloosa. He was 79.

(1)One of these things just doesn't belong here...

[Bact PhD]

John leCarre, spy novelist:

Quote from NPR:
John le Carré, the British spy novelist behind dozens of works including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, has died at 89 in Cornwall, England.

Le Carré, who was born David Cornwell, died of pneumonia on the evening of Dec. 12, according to a statement from his publisher.

[Deleted]

That's sad to hear. I enjoyed every book of his I read - which is pretty much most of them. His cold war novels were the best but that's probably a generational thing as I grew to adulthood during that period. He also read his own works on audiobooks - and was an excellent reader. RIP.

[LFC]

Charley Pride of complications from COVID. He received a lifetime achievement award by the Country Music Association a month ago. Hmmmm.

[Rue Bella]

Dec 14, 2020 3:30:09 GMT Bact PhD said:

John leCarre, spy novelist:

Quote from NPR:
John le Carré, the British spy novelist behind dozens of works including The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, has died at 89 in Cornwall, England.

Le Carré, who was born David Cornwell, died of pneumonia on the evening of Dec. 12, according to a statement from his publisher.

If you've not seen it,  YouTube has the full 6 part mini series of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Alec Guinness. Good TV.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq61jstTApk&list=PLwix5PoqRIFNFxBcVsrcq2CrnVvbkexVR&index=1

[LFC]

Dec 15, 2020 22:54:10 GMT Rue Bella said:

If you've not seen it,  YouTube has the full 6 part mini series of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Alec Guinness. Good TV.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq61jstTApk&list=PLwix5PoqRIFNFxBcVsrcq2CrnVvbkexVR&index=1

I may have to try it. I enjoyed several of his book though I have to admit I was disappointed in the last of the series when he caught up with The Jackal.

[Bact PhD]

Dawn Wells, best known as castaway Mary Ann on Gilligan’s Island, age 82 from COVID complications.

www.cnn.com/2020/12/30/entertainment/dawn-wells-obit/index.html

So that leaves Tina Louise, the original cast member who LEAST wanted to be associated with the show after its cancellation, as the last survivor.

[Bact PhD]

Cloris Leachman of Young Frankenstein and Mary Tyler Moore fame, and best known to the under-30 crowd as the oldest-ever competitor on Dancing with the Stars, 94:

Leachman, who worked well into her 90s and became the oldest contestant on “Dancing With the Stars” in 2008, died Tuesday evening of natural causes, her publicist said. She was 94.

[Bact PhD]

Cicely Tyson, actress, 96:

Cicely Tyson, an actress whose electrifying portrayals of resilient Black women — foremost in the 1974 TV movie “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” but also as Coretta Scott King and Harriet Tubman — brought some of the first ennobling portrayals of African Americans to a vast television audience, died Jan. 28 at 96.

Ms. Tyson had shrouded her age until late in life. For much of her career, she convincingly presented herself as 15 years younger than she was,...

[Bact PhD]

Christopher Plummer, 91:

For all the roles he embodied and for all the acclaim he earned during his long and distinguished career, Christopher Plummer found himself helplessly chained to Capt. Von Trapp, the imperious patriarch of the Von Trapp Family Singers in “The Sound of Music.”

The role rocketed Plummer to stardom, opened doors in Hollywood and ensured he would be fondly and forever remembered by filmgoers around the world. Yet, the classically trained actor found Von Trapp to be a tired, one-dimensional and wooden character, and the film syrupy, at best.

“I’m just sorry that after all the years of playing marvelous roles, to be known for something as saccharine as that,” he told The Times in 1976. Still, he allowed, “It became easier for me to fill a theater.”

A bankable and widely respected stage and film actor for half a century, Plummer died early Friday at his home in Connecticut, where he lived with his longtime wife, Elaine Taylor. He was 91.

[Rue Bella]

Rush Limbaugh. Died Wednesday, still thankfully dead on Thursday.

[Bact PhD]

Roger Mudd, longtime CBS newsman and one-time presumptive heir apparent to Walter Cronkite, 93.

The Washington Bureau of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s was full of big names. Seventy-five percent of the U.S. televisions in use were tuned to the three network newscasts each night, where tens of millions watched Eric Sevareid, Daniel Schorr, Marvin and Bernard Kalb, George Herman, Bob Schieffer, Lesley Stahl, Ed Bradley and Robert Pierpoint.

But none was bigger than Mudd. He had reported and co-anchored political conventions, elections and eventually earned his place as Walter Cronkite's regular stand-in.

[Bact PhD]

Elgin Baylor, NBA great in the 1960s, 86:

Baylor died of natural causes Monday and was surrounded by his wife, Elaine, and his daughter, Krystal, the Los Angeles Lakers said in a statement.

"Elgin was the love of my life and my best friend," Elaine said in the statement. "And like everyone else, I was in awe of his immense courage, dignity and the time he gave to all fans. At this time we ask that I and our family be allowed to mourn his passing in privacy."

Considered one of basketball's greatest players, Baylor was an 11-time All-Star and 10-time All-NBA selection during his 14 seasons with the Lakers from 1958 to 1971. He was the 1958-59 Rookie of the Year as well as the All-Star Game MVP that year. He averaged a double-double for his career, posting 27.4 points and 13.5 rebounds per game.

Double Threat

Elgin Baylor was one of just four players in NBA history to average at least 25 points and 10 rebounds over his career.
                                PPG    RPG
Wilt Chamberlain    30.1    22.9
Elgin Baylor            27.4    13.5
Bob Pettit                26.4     16.2
Karl Malone            25.0     10.1
-- ESPN Stats & Information

With the Lakers, who moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960, Baylor made eight NBA Finals appearances but never won a title, losing seven-game series to the Boston Celtics on three occasions. He holds the single-game Finals scoring record with 61 points against the Celtics in 1962.

[Bact PhD]

Noted children's author Beverly Cleary (Beezus and Ramona, Henry Huggins), 104(!):

Children's book author Beverly Cleary died on Thursday in Carmel, California, at 104 years old, her publishing company, Harper Collins Publishers, announced on Friday.
Cleary published her first book, "Henry Huggins," in 1950, and more than 40 other books in years following, according to Harper Collins. Cleary's books have sold more than 85 million copies and were translated into 29 different languages.
Her protagonists were pests, goody-goodies, bullies and daydreamers, sometimes all at once. She mined memories of her youth and the struggles of kids she knew to capture children's views of the adult world, where fathers sometimes lost their jobs and mothers sometimes parented alone.

[Bact PhD]

Howard Schnellenberger, Coach most notably of the Miami Hurricanes during their 1983 championship run (also recruited many of the players Jimmy Johnson would coach a couple of years later, besides building the program at Florida Atlantic from scratch, 87:

On his first day as the man in charge of University of Miami football — a moribund program that had churned through five coaches in nine years and was seriously considering dropping to a lower level of competition — Howard Schnellenberger stood before his players and predicted the Hurricanes would win a national championship. Not necessarily that season but eventually.

Nobody could have imagined he would do it within five years. Schnellenberger, the architect of the Hurricanes football dynasty and the founding father of the Florida Atlantic University football program, died on Saturday at 87, leaving behind a legacy that forever changed two South Florida universities.

The cause of death was not disclosed, but Schnellenberger had been in declining health. He suffered a subdural hematoma from a fall last summer, requiring hospitalization.

www.miamiherald.com/sports/college/acc/university-of-miami/article242605541.html

[Bact PhD]

Alcee Hastings, judge and later Congressman from South Florida, 84:

www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-alcee-hastings-civil-right-impeached-judge-congress-obituary-20210406-lnjgt4hokrh3zdzacufao4erqm-story.html

Hastings crusaded against racial injustice as a civil rights lawyer, became a federal judge who was impeached and removed from office, and went on to win 15 congressional elections, becoming Florida’s senior member of Congress.

[Bact PhD]

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, 99:

www.cnn.com/2021/04/09/uk/prince-philip-dies-gbr-intl/index.html

London (CNN)Prince Philip, the lifelong companion of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, has died, Buckingham Palace announced Friday. He was 99.

In a statement, the palace said: "It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen announces the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle. Further announcements will be made in due course. The Royal Family join with people around the world in mourning his loss.

[goldenvalley]

I didn't realize Prince Philip was that old. I guess the Queen isn't much younger.

[Bact PhD]

Apr 9, 2021 15:43:52 GMT goldenvalley said:

I didn't realize Prince Philip was that old. I guess the Queen isn't much younger.

Her Majesty is about to turn 94, I believe.

[LFC]

Bernie Madoff. Burn in hell. At least he died in prison.

[LFC]

Biden says goodbye to former VP Walter Mondale.

President Joe Biden paid tribute to Walter “Fritz” Mondale after the former vice president passed away on Monday night.

In a statement with his wife Jill, Biden called Mondale his “dear friend and mentor.”

“When I arrived in the United States Senate in 1973, Walter Mondale was one of the first people to greet me,” the President said. “Through his work as a Senator, he showed me what was possible.”

Biden praised Mondale as “unwavering in his pursuit of progress” who was his “trusted guide” when Barack Obama asked Biden to consider being his vice president in the 2008 presidential elections.

“It was Walter Mondale who defined the vice presidency as a full partnership, and helped provide a model for my service,” Biden said.

Mondale, who served as vice president under President Jimmy Carter before unsuccessfully running for office against Ronald Reagan in 1984, died in his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota at age 93.

Carter called Mondale an “invaluable partner” in a statement on Monday.

“During our administration, Fritz used his political skill and personal integrity to transform the vice presidency into a dynamic, policy-driving force that had never been seen before and still exists today,” the former president said.

[AnBr]

Michael Collins

[andydp]

Apr 28, 2021 20:03:43 GMT AnBr said:

Michael Collins

Just a quick trivia fact: during Apollo he was in the command module.  There was no video feed.  Michael Collins was the only person who was not able to see Armstrong take the first step.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 28, 2021 20:38:27 GMT andydp said:

Apr 28, 2021 20:03:43 GMT AnBr said:

Michael Collins

Just a quick trivia fact: during Apollo he was in the command module.  There was no video feed.  Michael Collins was the only person who was not able to see Armstrong take the first step.

And he didn't get to walk on the moon on that first trip.  I always felt bad for him for that.

[AnBr]

Johnny Crawford