General "RIP" announcements that might be of interest

http://www.wthr.com/story/1803…napolis-500-after-surgery

May 1, 2012

A famous face will not be at the Indianapolis 500 this year.

Eyewitness News sports director Dave Calabro confirmed Tuesday night that Jim Nabors will miss the Indy 500 pre-race celebration for the second time in the last six years. Nabors, whose rendition of "Back Home Again In Indiana" became a Speedway tradition in 1972, will undergo heart valve surgery later this month.

"It's a very, I don't know, to me, it's just magical," Nabors said in a 2009 interview. "To be here all of those years, it's part of my life, part of my history now. It's been great to see all the kids grow up."

Doctors expect the 81-year-old to make a complete recovery.

Nabors will record the song on video before his surgery and that video will be played at the race.

Nabors also missed the 2007 race for health reasons.

Gore Vidal died. Strange man.

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20617174,00.html

I agree with you, May. He was a VERY strange man.

Another familiar character actor has died, Norm Alden



http://www.hispanicbusiness.co…avorite_unknown_actor.htm

Always liked him, a welcome addition to any film.

First time I saw Alden was in My Three Sons in the late 60's. He played the father of Chips girlfriend and was constantly trying to break them up. He was also in Tora Tora Tora as the pilot of one of the B-17's coming in from California that flew right into the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

RIP Gore & Alden

Long time veteran actor R.G.Armstrong Jr. 95
Played in many westerns on TV and movies.
Several Sam Peckinpah films Ride the High Country,Major Dundee and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. RIP

Quote from BILL OF PA

Long time veteran actor R.G.Armstrong Jr. 95
Played in many westerns on TV and movies.
Several Sam Peckinpah films Ride the High Country,Major Dundee and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. RIP

This of course was originally posted last week,
but thanks Bill.

Veteran stuntman Tony Epper died at his home in Idaho on July 20 after a long fighter with cancer. He was 73.

His stunt work included such recent films as "Lethal Weapon 2," "Thelma and Louise," "Patriot Games," Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula," "The River Wild," "Waterworld," "Money Train," "Jingle All the Way," "Volcano" and "Con Air."

Epper also worked steadily in television, first appearing in an episode of "Bachelor Father" in 1958 and racking up guest roles in series including "I Spy," "The Green Hornet," "Daniel Boone," "Batman," "Gunsmoke," "Kung Fu," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "The Rockford Files," "Charlie's Angels," "The A-Team" and "MacGyver." He last appeared in 1996 in an episode of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" as a drunken Klingon.

Born John Anthony Epper in Los Angeles on October 1, 1938, he was the son of actor-stuntman John Epper [1906-1992]. He did his first Hollywood work as an actor and stuntman in the early 1950s, appearing uncredited in the films "Carbine Williams," "The Story of Will Rogers" and "Ma and Pa Kettle at Home." He appeared with John Wayne in "The Cowboys".

He was second unit director on the Abel Ferrara-helmed 1986 telepic "The Gladiator."

Epper's brothers Andy [1943-2010] and Gary [1944-2007] were also actor-stuntmen but preceded him in death. He's survived by his wife, Donna; two sons, Danny, an actor and stuntman, and Roger; a daughter; two step-daughters and a variety of other Epper family members who work in the business, including his sister Jeannie Epper.

RIP Tony

I just found today and wanted to share this to you. It is a little old since July 16, but I think it is very important for you country fans out there.



Kitty Wells passed away at the age of 92. She really made her mark in the country music industry for women and will be missed by all her fans.

VIP ~ Kitty.

Cheers Hondo

Here's to you Kitty and all your fans! Keith

Quote from Hondo Duke Lane

I just found today and wanted to share this to you. It is a little old since July 16, but I think it is very important for you country fans out there.

VIP ~ Kitty.

Cheers Hondo

Quote from BatjacAuburn

Kitty Wells, American country music pioneer dead at 92. Her song "It wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" set the stage for female solo artists in country music.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07…ry-singer-dies-at-92.html

This was indeed posted on July 17th.

Composer Marvin Hamlisch has died at 68. He won three Oscars in 1974.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s…TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=20

RIP Marvin

Film critic Judith Crist died.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08….html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

RIP Judith

Italian special effects master Carlo Rambaldi, father of “E.T.”, dead at 86

http://www.washingtonpost.com/…7-76e23a982d06_story.html

Carlo Rambaldi, a special effects master and three-time Oscar winner known as the father of “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” died Friday in southern Italy after a long illness, Italian news media reported. He was 86.

Rambaldi won visual effects Oscars for Steven Spielberg’s 1982 blockbuster, Ridley Scott’s film “Alien” in 1979, and John Guillermin’s “King Kong” in 1976.

“Carlo Rambaldi was E.T.’s Geppetto,” said Spielberg, referring to the fictional character who created Pinocchio. “ All of us who marveled and wondered at his craft and artistry are deeply saddened by the news of his passing.”

Rambaldi worked on more than 30 films, but was best known for his work on E.T., for which he created three robots, two costumes worn by actors in the scenes when E.T. walked, and gloves for the hands.

Rambaldi, a wizard of a discipline known as mechatronics — which combines disciplines including mechanical, electronic and system design engineering — did not hide a disdain for computerized effects.

“Digital costs around eight times as much as mechatronics,” Rambaldi was quoted by the Rome daily La Repubblica as having once said. “E.T. cost a million dollars and we created it in three months. If we wanted to do the same thing with computers, it would take at least 200 people a minimum of five months.”

Rambaldi was born in 1925 in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna and graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 1951. While he dreamed of becoming an artist, he was drawn into the world of cinema when he was asked to create a dragon for a low-budget science fiction movie in 1956.

He moved to Rome and found work in television before his first big success, the 1975 Italian horror film “Deep Red.” He drew the attention of Dino De Laurentiis, who brought him to Hollywood to work on “King Kong.”

Italian director Pupi Avati described Rambaldi as “a child who loved to play and make his toys. A child who dreams of making a theme park of all his characters,” the news agency ANSA reported. The pair worked together on a 1975 film.

“In those years, Rambaldi was the only craftsman capable of creating, as he did, a fig tree 12 meters high that he carried to the center of Ferrara with a huge truck, a fig tree that was to change color with the seasons, and also shed its leaves.”

Rambaldi had been living for about a decade in the Calabrian city of Lamezia Terme, where he died.

Great man, and a sad loss to the industry