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

[jimsteel]

NFL Hall of Famer Willie Brown Dead at 78


NFL Hall of Famer Willie Brown -- one of the greatest cornerbacks of all time -- has died at 78, Raiders officials confirm.

Brown was a MONSTER on the field during his illustrious 15-year NFL career -- winning 3 Super Bowls and making 4 Pro Bowls in addition to making the AFL All-Star team 5 times!

Brown boasted 54 career interceptions -- 39 of them with the Oakland Raiders. He's currently the co-owner of the Raiders franchise record holder for INTs.

His career path was unusual ... Brown was a stud at Grambling State but was NOT drafted. So, he signed as a free agent with the Houston Oilers in 1963 but was cut during training camp.

He later signed with the Denver Broncos of the AFL, where he became a star -- only to be traded to Oakland in 1967, where he played until he retired in 1978.

Brown played in 3 Super Bowls with the Raiders -- XI, XV and XVIII -- and at one time, held the record for the longest Super Bowl interception with a 75-yard return in XI.

James Harrison later broke the record with a 100-yard return in Super Bowl XLIII.

After his NFL playing career, Brown became a defensive back coach with the Raiders from 1979 to 1988.

Brown was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1984, his first year of eligibility.

[jimsteel]

John Clarke Dies: ‘Days Of Our Lives’ Actor & Lifetime Achievement Emmy Recipient Was 88


John “Jack” Shelton Clarke, who won over fans with his portrayal of “Mickey Horton” on Days of Our Lives, has died. He was 88.

Clarke passed away from complications of pneumonia on October 16, in Laguna Beach, a representative for the actor told Deadline Monday. Clarke previously suffered a stroke in 2007 and had been in declining health in the last few years.

The veteran actor worked in film, television and theater, but was most recognized by soap opera fans after 39 years on NBC’s long-running daytime series Days of Our Lives.

In addition to his stint in daytime TV, and two years co-starring with Leslie Nielsen on The New Breed for ABC, Clarke co-starred or had guest roles on such early TV series as Gun Smoke; Have Gun Will Travel; The FBI; Sugarfoot; Death Valley Days; Twilight Zone; Maverick; Wanted Dead or Alive; The Law and Mrs. Jones; and many others.

His motion picture credits included Judgement at Nuremburg; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; The Satan Bug; Man Missing; and Burma Patrol

In the theater, Clarke performed as resident leading man in more than 75 plays at the Tenthouse Theater in Chicago. He was resident leading man at the Palm Springs Playhouse for one season, then switched to musical theater, and played various leading roles at the Sacramento Music Circus.

[jimsteel]

Jerry Fogel, Actor on 'The Mothers-in-Law,' Dies at 83

He played the newlywed husband of Deborah Walley's Suzie on the 1960s NBC comedy.

Jerry Fogel, who portrayed one-half of the newlywed couple hounded by the meddling Kaye Ballard and Eve Arden on the 1960s NBC comedy The Mothers-in-Law, has died. He was 83.

Fogel died Monday at a hospice facility in Kansas City, Missouri, his family announced. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2008.

The lanky 6-foot-3 actor also played Lt. Commander William Outerbridge in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and was Ken Howard's brother-in-law, Bill Donahue, on the CBS high-school basketball drama The White Shadow.

Fogel quit his job as a popular rock 'n' roll DJ in his native Rochester, New York, signed with William Morris and came to Hollywood before landing the role of Jerry Buell on The Mothers-in-Law, created by I Love Lucy writers Bob Carroll and Madelyn Pugh Davis and produced by Desi Arnaz.

On the 1967-69 show, Jerry and Suzie Hubbard (Deborah Walley) elope and move in with her parents (Arden and Herbert Rudley) in their garage apartment. Right next door are Buell's folks, portrayed by Ballard and Roger C. Carmel. (When Carmel quit the show after seeking a raise, Richard Deacon stepped in for the second season.) The two sets of parents can't help but muck things up, especially when the young couple have twins.

Born on Jan. 17, 1936, Jerome Fogel was the son of a theater owner in Rochester. He attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and West Point, then spun records on radio station WBBF before deciding to try acting.

"I remember telling my wife, 'This is something I am just going to have to do,'" he recalled in 2016. "I was very naive. She was willing to go along with it. … If I hadn't done that, I would have lived the rest of my life saying, 'What if?'" They had two young sons at the time.

In 1966, Fogel made his onscreen debut on an installment of The Big Valley and appeared in the first episode of That Girl.

After The Mothers-in-Law, Fogel showed up on such shows as Ironside; Love, American Style; Room 222; Here's Lucy; Barnaby Jones; Marcus Welby, M.D.; The Mary Tyler Moore Show; and The Bob Newhart Show and in the 1975 movie The Day of the Locust. He recurred on The White Shadow starting in 1978.

When his acting career ended, the Leawood, Kansas, resident returned to his roots, co-hosting a radio talk show in Kansas City.

[jimsteel]

Josip Elic, Actor in 'One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest,' Dies at 98

Josip Elic supported Jack Nicholson in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.'
He also appeared twice on 'The Twilight Zone' and had champagne poured down his pants in 'The Producers.'

Josip Elic, the familiar character actor who carried Jack Nicholson on his shoulders in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, has died. He was 98.

Elic died Monday in River Edge, New Jersey, of complications from a fall, producer and manager Matt Beckoff told The Hollywood Reporter.

A burly 6-foot-3 native of Montana, Elic also played a restaurant violinist who gets a bottle of champagne poured down his pants by Zero Mostel in Mel Brooks' The Producers (1967) and appeared in Pocketful of Miracles (1961), starring Bette Davis and Glenn Ford.

On The Twilight Zone, he portrayed an officer in a future totalitarian state in the 1961 episode "The Obsolete Man" that starred Burgess Meredith, then returned a year later as a bomb-shelter electrician working for a revenge-seeking millionaire (Joseph Wiseman) in "One More Pallbearer."

In Milos Forman's Oscar best picture winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Elic played Bancini, a confused patient at the Oregon psychiatric hospital who says little — "My lines were, 'I don't know,'" he noted in a 2015 interview — and gives Nicholson's R.P. McMurphy a ride on a basketball court. The scene was ad-libbed.

"I'm sitting down there on the bench watching them play basketball, and all of a sudden somebody is on my shoulders with their legs over my shoulders and over my head," he told the North Jersey Record in December. "It was Jack Nicholson. I got up and said, 'I'll play the game with him,' and I started playing basketball. He had thighs like you wouldn't believe. Holy crap.

Born Joseph Elich Jr. on March 10, 1921, in Butte, his parents, Joseph and Martha, were immigrants from Croatia. After working in a copper mine and serving in the U.S. Navy, he attended acting school in New York City on the G.I. Bill and appeared in an off-Broadway production of Threepenny Opera in 1954.

He went on to appear on television in The Phil Silvers Show, Peter Gunn and The Untouchables and in such films as Murder, Inc. (1960), Convicts 4 (1962), Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964), Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971), Dirty Little Billy (1972), The World's Greatest Lover (1977) and Black Rain (1989).

After he fell while living alone in his New York apartment, Elic spent more than a year in the home of actress Lee Meredith (she played the sexy Ulla in The Producers) and her husband, Bert, before recently moving to an assisted-living residence, according to the Record.

[TTX]

John Witherspoon AT 77

Several minor celebrity deaths but this one might mean something to people

www.yahoo.com/entertainment/friday-actor-comedian-john-witherspoon-061233361.html

[on_the_edge]

Sad to see Pops pass on.

[jwar]

Really sad to see him go, but also that's 2 people in basically the same role from one of my favorite tv shows (Black Jesus) that has passed. First Charlie Murphy now John, he will be missed.

[jimsteel]

Andile Gumbi, Former Simba of Broadway's The Lion King, Dies at 36

Andile Gumbi, a rising star who took the Broadway stage in The Lion King, passed away recently in Israel after suffering cardiac arrest, according to Eyewitness News. Gumbi was 36.

At the time of his death, Gumbi was portraying the lead role of King Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel The Musical at the Jerusalem Theatre. He appeared as Simba in Broadway's The Lion King from August 28, 2012 through August 25, 2013, playing the role during the Tony-winning musical's 15th anniversary.

At that time, Gumbi told Broadway.com in an interview, "I know I'm good at what I do, but I start to think maybe Broadway is too far; maybe I could never make it there. It's the pinnacle of the theater industry! So when it happened, it was the realization of a dream, but something I wasn't sure would happen for me."

A native of Durban, South Africa, Gumbi first starred in The Lion King's Australian company in 2004, after which he served as the international face of the musical, appearing in numerous worldwide advertisements for the show.

[jimsteel]

Actor Brian Tarantina Dead at 60, Rep Cites Illness



Brian Tarantina has died ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell us that the veteran actor was found dead early Saturday morning in his Manhattan apartment from what we're told appeared to be a fatal drug overdose to the officers and first-responders who came out.

Our sources say Brian's niece went to check in on him at his Hell's Kitchen residence at around 12:30 AM, and discovered her uncle unresponsive on the couch. We're told the niece told cops she'd last talked to him late Tuesday night. Upon finding him, she called 911, and we're told when officers and paramedics arrived ... they found a white powdery substance near his body, believed to be alleged narcotics. He was pronounced dead on the scene.

It's unclear at this point what the white substance might've been. We're told the NYC medical examiner's office will conduct an autopsy to determine an official cause of death.

Brian has been working in the biz for a long time, often playing supporting characters through the '80s and '90s, and even into the 2000s and onward. He's perhaps best known for tough guy roles in flicks like "Jacob's Ladder," "Uncle Buck," "The Jerky Boys," "Summer of Sam," "Knight and Day," "Carlito's Way," "Donnie Brasco," "City By the Sea" and others.

He's got a much more extensive resume than that though. The guy's been in tons of stuff over the years ... shows like "Law & Order," "Miami Vice," "Spin City," "Oz," "NYPD Blue," "ER," "The Sopranos," "Gilmore Girls," "Heroes," "The Black Donnellys," "The Blacklist," "Madame Secretary," "Blue Bloods" and most recently in "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" playing Jackie.

[jimsteel]

TIMI HANSEN, FORMER MERCYFUL FATE BASSIST, DEAD AT 61

The metal world is mourning the death of longtime Mercyful Fate and King Diamond bassist Timi Hansen. King Diamond himself confirmed the news, revealing that Hansen had been "fighting cancer for a long time."

Read More: Mercyful Fate / King Diamond Bassist Timi Hansen Dead at 61 | loudwire.com/mercyful-fate-king-diamond-bassist-timi-hansen-dead/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral

Hansen played with Mercyful Fate from 1981 to 1985, appearing on Nuns Have No Fun, the classic album Melissa and Don't Break the Oath. He would later return to the band for 1992's Return of the Vampire, 1993's In the Shadows and 1994's The Bell Witch EP.

Hansen maintained a close musical relationship with King Diamond, following him from Mercyful Fate over to King's solo records. His tenure with King Diamond included three studio albums, including the popular 1987 effort Abigail, as well as the 1989 compilation Dark Sides.

Mercyful Fate announced plans for a 2020 reunion but Hansen's name was absent when it was revealed. The musician went public with his cancer diagnosis after questions began to arise. "There are many questions about why I won't appear as part of the Mercyful Fate reunion in 2020. The honest explanation is simply that I am currently fighting a fight against cancer. But believe me, I will fight everything I can to be ready," stated Hansen this past August.

He added, "It's my big dream to be on stage again playing the old Mercyful Fate numbers in front of all of you very loyal fans. If this wasn't going to happen, I'd like to ask you to take good care of Joey Vera. I totally agree with King that he is a perfect 'stand-in,' so take good care of him."

The bassist had just passed his 61st birthday in late October



Read More: Mercyful Fate / King Diamond Bassist Timi Hansen Dead at 61 | loudwire.com/mercyful-fate-king-diamond-bassist-timi-hansen-dead/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral