R.I.P CELEBRITY DEATHS(NON WRESTLING) 2017

[jimsteel]

'Dragon Ball Z' Voice Actor Ryuji Saikachi Passes Away

The anime fandom is in mourning today after the loss of a vetted Japanese voice actor. According to new reports, Ryuji Saikachi passed on September 29 from congestive heart failure. The actor was 89-years-old.

If you are not familiar with Saikachi’s name, then you have probably heard his voice in one or two anime series. The actor had a long career in Japan and lent his voice to dozens of projects. Saikachi is best-known for voicing the Grand Kai in Dragon Ball Z and the film Dragon Ball Z Movie 12: Fukkatsu no Fusion!! Gokuu to Vegeta.

Saikachi has starred in other projects aside from Dragon Ball Z. The actor starred in anime titles like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Lupin III: Part II, Monster, Ranma 1/2, Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Yu Yu Hakusho. Saikachi also had roles in Castle in the Sky and Anne of Green Gables.

Outside of anime, Saikachi did dub work for Disney films and even lent his voice to the Kingdom Hearts franchise. The actor dubbed Rafiki’s voice in The Lion King for Japanese audiences and reprised his role for Kingdom Hearts II.

[TTX]

COMEDIAN RALPHIE MAY DIES AT 45

www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ralphie-may-stand-comic-last-212328518.html

[jimsteel]

Gary Weir, who was known to many children as Bozo the Clown, has passed away at age 75. The Arkansas based show was so popular that it had a 4-year audience waiting list

Weir often said on the show, that ran for 25 years, “Rootie kazootie, Wowie kazowie. Old Bozo is your best pal.” He would also ask the children if they walked to school or carried their lunch.

link

[TTX]

Well there's been many Bozos over the years in many cities, but each I'm sure was very special to someone. (Though interestingly, we never did. My Bozo was the Chicago Bozo)

[jimsteel]

Hall of Famer and Phoenix Suns star forward Connie Hawkins, who played seven seasons in the NBA, has died at the age of 75.

Hawkins, nicknamed "The Hawk" and a Brooklyn playground legend, played four All-Star seasons with the Suns from 1969 to 1973. He also played for the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks.

The Suns, who retired Hawkins' number 42 jersey, announced Saturday that he passed away on Friday.

"'The Hawk' revolutionized the game and remains to this day an icon of the sport and one of basketball's great innovators," the Suns said in a statement. "His unique combination of size, grace and athleticism was well ahead of its time and his signature style of play is now a hallmark of the modern game.

The 6-foot-8 Hawkins averaged 16.5 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 1.2 steals during his NBA career.

Before joining the NBA at age 27, Hawkins played two seasons in the American Basketball Association, winning the league title and MVP honors with the Pittsburgh Pipers in 1967-68. He also played four seasons with the Harlem Globetrotters in the 1960s.

He became the first Suns player to be enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.

[TTX]

Connie was probably the ABA's first big star. RIP.

[jimsteel]

French actor Jean Rochefort, who rose to prominence in the 1960s and was equally adept at arthouse dramas and crowdpleasing comedies, appearing in “The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe” and “Pardon Mon Affaire” as well as Patrice Leconte’s “The Hairdresser’s Husband” and “Ridicule,” has died. He was 87.

Rochefort died in a Paris hospital on Sunday night. The actor’s death was confirmed by his daughter Clemence, one of his five children.

Rochefort last starred opposite Sandrine Kiberlain in Philippe Le Guay’s “Florida,” which world-premiered at Locarno in 2015 and was nominated for Variety Piazza Grande Award.

His potential English-language breakthrough, as the Don Quixote character in Terry Gilliam’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote,” was famously abandoned during production. The struggles to get this feature off the ground were later memorably chronicled in the documentary “Lost in La Mancha.”

A pillar of French cinema, Rochefort made his leap into the limelight in the 1960s, initially mainly in costume dramas that were well-suited to the actor’s aristocratic composure and self-possession, such as “Cartouche” (1962), from helmer Philippe de Broca, about the famous 18th century brigand, played by Jean-Paul Belmondo.

After co-starring in a series of period adventure films, such as the popular “Angelique” series from helmer Bernard Borderie, the actor took on more clearly comedic roles that fit his emerging public persona as someone of wit and intelligence, including in a staggering seven-time collaboration with two directors. With Yves Robert, he made 1970s cult comedies including “The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe” and the Golden-Globe nominated “Pardon Mon Affaire” and its popular sequel “We Will All Meet in Paradise,” while director Patrice Leconte directed the versatile actor in arguably his most wide-ranging performances in dramatic comedies such as “The Hairdresser’s Husband” and “Ridicule,” both from the 1990s.

Rochefort, known for his lanky figure and trademark mustache, was born in Paris, and started studying acting in 1949 in the French capital, where he would finally be accepted into the Conservatoire and study alongside some of the other talents of his generation, such as Claude Rich, Bruno Cremer and frequent future co-stars Belmondo and Jean-Pierre Marielle. Throughout his career, Rochefort continued to work in the theater, doing several plays each decade after a start at the Paris-based Compagnie Grenier-Hussenot at the start of his career.

“Cartouche,” his first collaboration with director de Broca — three more would follow — acquainted Rochefort with horseback riding, a lifelong passion that came to an abrupt halt in 2000, when a double hernia on the set of “Don Quixote” meant the actor couldn’t ride anymore and production had to be halted.



That the actor didn’t lose his enthusiasm for the sport was demonstrated in 2004, when Rochefort was a broadcast commentator discussing the equestrian events during the Athens Summer Olympics (he had already done TV hosting duties in the 1980s, for the French version of Disney Channel’s “Welcome to Pooh Corner”). One of the two short documentaries he directed in the 1970s was a portrait of a rider, and in 2011, he co-wrote a book, together with art historian Edward Vignot, about various works in the Louvre that featured horses.



The actor first won the Cesar, the French Oscar, in 1976 for his supporting work in costumer “Let Joy Reign Supreme” from helmer Bertrand Tavernier, with whom he also made “The Clockmaker,” in which he played alongside his friend Philippe Noiret. Rochefort won the best actor statue two years later for his work in Pierre Schoendoerffer’s naval drama “The Drummer Crab.” He was nominated another four times between 1980 and 1997 before being awarded an honorary Cesar in 1999 and hosting the Cesar ceremony in 2008.



While doing the promo rounds for Fernando Trueba’s elegiac black-and-white drama “The Artist and the Model,” set in Occupied France, Rochefort announced that he’d decided not only to stop acting onstage but also in films, since most of the screenplays he received were about “how to get rid of grandpa.” However, he returned to the screen in “Floride.”



Rochefort is survived by his wife, Francoise Vidal, and five children: Marie and Julien, from his first wife, Alexandra Mocswa; Pierre, from actress-helmer Nicole Garcia; and Louise and Clemence, from Vidal. Pierre and Julien are also actors; Pierre appeared in Benoit Jacquot’s 2012 costumer “Farewell My Queen,” while Julien co-starred with Rochefort senior in 2007 TV pic “Hautot pere et fils,” where they played father and son.

[Texas Kid]

One of my fondest memories was working on stage with Bozo when I was 5 at the State Fair in Dallas. Too young to really appreciate that. Just don't know which Bozo lol

[TTX]

www.yahoo.com/sports/pro-football-hall-fame-quarterback-y-tittle-dies-age-90-172239862.html

[jimsteel]

Bob Schiller, Writer on 'I Love Lucy,' Dies at 98

The two-time Emmy winner teamed with Bob Weiskopf in one of the great TV partnerships; they also worked on 'All in the Family' and many other shows.
Bob Schiller, the legendary sitcom writer known for his work on such shows as I Love Lucy and All in the Family, died Tuesday. He was 98.

Schiller, who collaborated with his late writing partner, Bob Weiskopf, for nearly a half-century, died at his home in Pacific Palisades, his daughter, Sadie Novello, told The Hollywood Reporter.

Best known for being the first (and only) additions to the original writing team for I Love Lucy, Schiller and Weiskopf came up with some of that series' most beloved episodes, including the one that guest-starred John Wayne and the one that featured Lucy (Lucille Ball) "grape stomping" in Italy.

For All in the Family, the pair penned the two-part episode "Edith's 50th Birthday" in which Edith (Jean Stapleton) is the victim of an attempted rape.

They also wrote for such popular 1950s comedies such as Make Room for Daddy, The Bob Cummings Show, My Favorite Husband, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Ann Sothern Show and Pete and Gladys.

Their partnership continued through the '60s, '70s and '80s, writing and/or producing for The Lucy Show, The Red Skelton Show, The Good Guys, The Phyllis Diller Show, The Carol Burnett Show, The Flip Wilson Show, Maude and Archie Bunker's Place.

The pair carpooled to the office during most of their career and played off each other perfectly — in writing and in person. When Schiller was once asked the reason for the success of their partnership, he responded, "That's easy — we've never agreed on anything!" Weiskopf's witty retort: "Yes, we have."

Schiller won two Emmys (shared with Weiskopf for their work on Flip and All in the Family), and they received the Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award for lifetime achievement from the Writers Guild of America in 1988.

Lifelong civil rights supporters, Schiller and Weiskopf also pushed for conversation around social issues and controversial topics such as race, gender, sexual assault and equal rights.

Born on Nov. 8, 1918, in San Francisco, Schiller and his family moved to Los Angeles a decade later. He attended John Burroughs Junior High and Los Angeles High School, graduating at age 16, and then enrolled at UCLA in 1935. In college, he wrote a humor column in the Daily Bruin titled "Bob Tales."

While in the U.S. Army in Europe, Schiller penned a column for Stars and Stripes and produced comedy variety shows for the troops, providing much-needed levity during dark times. "The worst weapon I had to use was a pie to the face," he once said.

After the war, Schiller took a job with Rogers & Cowan, whose client included a dentist for whom Schiller wrote the billboard copy, "Visit your neighborhood friendly dentist. Come in before they come out."

He then began to work in radio, writing for shows starring Abbott & Costello, Mel Blanc and Jimmy Durante and for The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, December Bride and Duffy's Tavern, which made him a staff writer in 1946.

Schiller first met Weiskopf, who had just relocated to Los Angeles from New York, in 1953, and they teamed on a radio script for Our Miss Brooks before delving into the new medium of network television.

He and Weiskopf were hired by head writer-producer Jess Oppenheimer — Weiskopf's former roommate — in 1955 and joined I Love Lucy and original writers Bob Carroll Jr. and Madelyn Pugh Davis for the start of the show's fifth season.

After co-writing 53 episodes though the sixth and final season and then working on The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, the duo developed The Lucy Show and had a hand in every one of that comedy's 156 episodes from 1962-68.

Schiller, who had a standing golf game twice a week at Riviera Country Club for as long as he could play, retired soon after the 1988 WGA strike.