R.I.P. CELEBRITY DEATHS 2019(NON WRESTLERS)

[topdollar]

RIP to Peter Mayhew. I'll always have many fond memories of Chewbacca.

[jimsteel]

Barbara Perry, Actress on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show,' Dies at 97

Barbara Perry (left) appeared with Louie Anderson on the FX comedy 'Baskets.'

She also appeared on 'The Andy Griffith Show,' 'Murphy Brown' and 'Baskets' and was an expert tap dancer who headlined nightclubs.
Barbara Perry, an actress and dancer who played the wife of Morey Amsterdam's character on The Dick Van Dyke Show, died Sunday of natural causes in Hollywood, family spokesman David Van Deusen said. She was 97.

Perry also worked on the Samuel Fuller films Shock Corridor (1963) and The Naked Kiss (1964), starred on Broadway with Burgess Meredith and Eddie Foy Jr. and had dozens of TV appearances, including several in the past decade. She played the neighbor Mrs. Douglas on two episodes of How I Met Your Mother and was a gift shop employee on a 2017 installment of Baskets.

On the 1963 "Class Reunion" episode of The Andy Griffith Show, Perry appears as Mayberry local Mary Lee Becktel, and she, Andy and Barney (Don Knotts) — all members of the Class of '45 — wistfully sing the Mayberry Union High fight song. ("We'll hit the line for points every time, the Orange and Blue will try, try, try, try …")

Dick Van Dyke Show trivia buffs will know Perry as "Pickles," the wife of joke writer Buddy Sorrell (Amsterdam), on two first-season episodes of the famed sitcom. (Joan Shawlee took over the role for three installments in 1963.)

And she was one of Murphy Brown's secretaries — No. 39, in fact — on the Candice Bergen comedy.

Perry was born on June 22, 1921, in Norfolk, Virginia. Her father, William, was a keyboardist and a conductor, and her mother, Victoria, sang in the chorus at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. At the age of 4, she made her stage debut as Trouble in Madame Butterfly at the Met.

[jimsteel]

Kip Niven, Actor in 'Magnum Force,' 'Alice' and 'The Waltons,' Dies at 73

Actor Kip Niven, who played one of the young rogue motorcycle cops in Magnum Force and appeared on such TV shows as Alice and The Waltons, has died. He was 73.

Niven, a theater mainstay in his native Kansas City, Missouri, died Monday, The Kansas City Star reported. Local radio station KCUR-FM said the cause of death was a heart attack.

Niven starred as legendary University of Kansas basketball coach Phog Allen in Jayhawkers (2014), written and directed by Kevin Willmott, a University of Kansas professor and recent Oscar screenplay winner for BlacKkKlansman.

"Kip was Kansas City theater and film in many ways. He was a symbol of its heart and beauty and community," Willmott told KCUR. "He was our little piece of Hollywood right here in the backyard."

At the conclusion of the long-running CBS sitcom Alice in 1985, Niven portrayed a country singer who sweeps Linda Lavin's title character off her feet and takes her to Nashville to fulfill her dream of becoming a singer as well. He and Lavin were married in real life from 1982-92.

Early in his career, Niven played Alan "Red" Astrachan, one of the traffic cops — Tim Matheson, David Soul and Robert Urich were the others — who take matters into their own hands in the Dirty Harry sequel Magnum Force (1973), starring Clint Eastwood.

On Broadway, he appeared in the 1991 musical comedy Nick and Nora, and he was the Rev. Tom Marshall on episodes of CBS' The Waltons and in a pair of subsequent telefilms.

Clifford Niven was born on May 27, 1945, in Kansas City and raised in the suburb of Prairie Village. He attended Shawnee Mission East High School and studied theater at the University of Kansas. One of his first onscreen roles came in a 1972 installment of Night Gallery.

He later showed up in the disaster pics Earthquake (1974), Airport 1975 and The Hindenburg (1975) and in other films including Midway (1976), Swashbuckler (1976), Damnation Alley (1977), New Year's Evil (1980), The Painting (2001) and Raising Jeffrey Dahmer (2006).

[jimsteel]

Philadelphia Phillies chairman David Montgomery dies at 72

Phillies chairman David Montgomery, who was team president during Philadelphia’s 2008 World Series championship season, has died. He was 72.

The team issued a statement Wednesday saying Montgomery died after a five-year fight with cancer.

Montgomery spent nearly 50 years working for the Phillies, starting in the ticket office in 1971. He was promoted to executive vice president after the 1981 season, became chief operating officer in 1992 and remained in that position until being promoted to general partner, president and chief executive officer in 1997.

Montgomery spearheaded the team's transition from Veterans Stadium to Citizens Bank Park in 2004 and led the organization during its most successful period from 2007-2011. The Phillies won five straight National League East titles, two NL pennants and one World Series in that span.

“David was one of Philadelphia’s most influential business and civic leaders in his generation,” Phillies owner John Middleton said. “He was beloved by everyone at the Phillies.”

[jimsteel]

Jim Fowler, from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, dies at age 87

Jim Fowler, the longtime host of Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, and who helped preserve and protect endangered species through his educational and outreach work has died at the age of 87.

Fowler, a professional zoologist, hosted Wild Kingdom starting in 1986. Prior to that he served as a co-host of the program with Marlin Perkins, starting in 1963. Fowler made hundreds of appearances on television, including KETV NewsWatch 7, and he would visit schools whenever he visited Omaha.


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In 2003, Fowler was honored with the Lindbergh Award for his 40-years of dedication to wildlife preservation and education.

“Jim Fowler’s enthusiastic, all-encompassing love for endangered wild life has won him the affection of human and animal kind the world over,” wrote Reeve Lindbergh in announcing the award.

Fowler was president of the Fowler Center for Wildlife Education, with a mission educate the public about wildlife so they may help protect habitats and influence government policy.

[jimsteel]

FREDDIE JOINS HIS HAMSTER
Freddie Starr dead: Comedy legend dies aged 76 at Spanish home

The comic was discovered on the floor of his Costa Del Sol apartment by a carer

Starr, whose hamster-eating antics led to The Sun’s most famous headline, was 76.

A carer discovered him on the floor of his Costa Del Sol apartment.

The entertainer was one of the biggest stars of the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Fans loved his wacky, wild, and unpredictable behaviour.

He starred on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here in 2011 just a year after recovering from quadruple bypass surgery following a heart attack.

But he left the jungle show due to ill health and became a recluse after a comeback bid flopped.

Neighbours in the resort of Mijas told how Freddie had been a shadow of his old self after being hammered with a £960,000 legal bill defending historical sex abuse charges.

He was forced to sell his £700,000 UK home and moved to Spain in 2015, despite never being charged over claims he put his hand up a girl’s skirt in 1974.

Chain-smoking Freddie was reduced to living in a pokey one-bedroom flat — but still loved a laugh.


Freddie Starr's pet-eating antics led to our most famous headline

[Bazzy]

Freddie Starr a British comedian legend R.I.P.

[on_the_edge]

Crazy Brits, biting head off bats and eating hamsters.

[jimsteel]

Chris Reccardi, Leading Animation Industry Artist, Dies At 54

The Los Angeles animation industry is mourning the sudden death of Chris Reccardi. The artist, who was 54 years old, suffered a heart attack in Ventura, California, while he was surfing.

He was a leading character designer, storyboard artist, writer, and visual development artist in the industry. Born in New York City and a graduate of Sayville High School in Long Island, Reccardi entered the animation industry in the late 1980s. He described his path into animation in a 2008 interview with Hi-Fructose magazine:

I came to L.A. because I was hoping that my sister’s husband (Disney animator Chuck Harvey) could help me get into the business. I was never an animation geek (outside of early Fleischer Popeye, which were just cool to watch stoned) and didn’t go to art school, so even with Chuck’s leads, I couldn’t get hired anywhere. But I persisted, because anything is better than a $4.50 an hour stock room or warehouse job. My first real in-house animation job was when John Kricfalusi, who was producing The New Beany and Cecil show at D.I.C. decided to give me a chance as a layout artist. My drawings were pretty lousy, but they needed new people badly. Roger Rabbit came out that summer and a sort of renaissance in the animation biz happened after that. Mostly because some execs figured that you can make real money off of the shit.

Since those humble beginnings, Reccardi has had a hand in some of the most popular animated series and feature films of the last thirty years. A small sampling of his credits: Tiny Toon Adventures (storyboard), Ren and Stimpy (layout/writer), Powerpuff Girls (writer), Dexter’s Laboratory (writer), Samurai Jack (writer), The Simpsons (layout), The Regular Show (supervising producer), Secret Mountain Fort Awesome (supervising producer), Spongebob Squarepants (storyboard director), The Mighty B! (storyboard), Tron: Uprising (storyboard), Mickey Mouse Shorts (location design), Wander Over Yonder (character design), Shrek 3 (storyboard), Hotel Transylvania 3 (visual development), The Lego Movie (concept artist/designer), and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (visual development).


He is expected to have screen credits on a number of films that have yet to be released, including next year’s The Spongebob Movie: It’s a Wonderful Sponge and Disney’s live-action remake of Lady and the Tramp, which will debut on its forthcoming streaming service.

Throughout his career, Reccardi also created numerous pilots based on his own ideas, including Meddlen Meddows for Cartoon Network and The Modifyers for Nickelodeon (the latter of which was co-created with his wife, Lynne Naylor):

In addition to his work in animation, Reccardi was both an exhibiting fine artist and musician.

As a painter and illustrator, he had gallery exhibitions in Palm Springs, Seattle, Australia, and Amsterdam. He also created custom art installations, including artwork for the Los Angeles chain Tender Greens at its locations in Pasadena (2011), Marina Del Rey (2013), and Westwood (2016). In 2014, he created a series of murals for the Linq Hotel’s High Roller, the wolrd’s largest observation wheel located in Las Vegas.

[TTX]

I might not be familiar with the name but I watched a heck of a lot of stuff he did. RIP.