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

[TTX]

RIP, Murray.

[jimsteel]

Clive Swift dead - Keeping Up Appearances actor dies aged 82
Famous for being long suffering Richard Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances

Clive Swift has died aged 82.

The actor died on Friday morning after a short illness, a representative confirmed.

Best known for playing the long suffering Richard Bucket in BBC series Keeping Up Appearances, Clive graced our screens from 1971 to 2017.

The classically trained actor's first appearance on the small screen came in the BBC adaptation of The Barchester Chronicles. In December 2007 he starred in a Doctor Who Christmas special as Mr Copper alongside Kylie Minogue.

His final screen outing came in 2017, starring as Felix Hope in Midsomer Murders. Swift also played the adoptive father of King Arthur in John Boorman's 1981 film Excalibur.

Known for versatility in his decade-spanning career, Swift's most famous role was starring alongside opposite Patricia Routledge in much-loved sitcom Keeping Up Appearances.

Speaking about how he approached the role of hen-pecked husband Richard, Swift said: "The first thing I decided was if Richard was a really meek and submissive person, in a way there was no conflict.

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'Young and the Restless' actor Kristoff St. John dies at 52

Emergency crews responded around 2 p.m. Sunday in the 2300 block of Morea Way in the San Fernando Valley. According to TMZ, friends went to check on St. John and found him unresponsive.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said there was no sign of foul play, and St. John appeared to have suffered from an alcohol overdose.

The 52-year-old has played Neil Winters on the soap opera since 1991, earning him multiple Daytime Emmy Award nominations and several NAACP Image Awards.

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Julie Adams, Damsel in Distress in 'Creature From the Black Lagoon,' Dies at 92

A leading lady at Universal in the 1950s, she had memorable stints on 'Perry Mason' and 'Murder, She Wrote' and played Jimmy Stewart's wife on TV.
Julie Adams, the comely brunette with the cascading curls best remembered as the damsel in distress in the 1954 horror classic Creature From the Black Lagoon, has died. She was 92.

Adams died early Sunday morning in Los Angeles, her son Mitchell Danton, a TV editor, told The Hollywood Reporter.

In more than six decades in film and on television, Adams also starred with Donald O'Connor in Francis Joins the WACS (1954), played opposite Elvis Presley in Tickle Me (1965) and appeared with Dennis Hopper in The Last Movie (1971) and with John Wayne in McQ (1974).

Fans of Murder, She Wrote know Adams for playing the eccentric realtor Eve Simpson on the long-running Angela Lansbury starrer, and in the early 1970s, she portrayed Jimmy Stewart's wife in the legendary actor's first foray into starring on his own series.

As a publicity stunt, Universal Studios once declared her legs "the most perfectly symmetrical in the world" and insured them for $125,000. And in "The Case of the Deadly Verdict," a 1963 episode of Perry Mason, Adams' character had the notable distinction of being one of the lawyer's few clients to be found guilty.

A standout in a series of quickly made Westerns at Paramount, Adams (then billed as Julia Adams) blossomed after she signed with Universal and was showcased in support of such stars as Arthur Kennedy in Bright Victory (1951), Stewart in Anthony Mann's Bend in the River (1952), William Powell in The Treasure of Lost Canyon (1952), Rock Hudson in The Lawless Breed (1953) and Van Heflin in Wings of the Hawk (1953).

Then the actress was offered the role that assured her a place in monster-movie history.

Seeking to cash in on the growing popularity of 3D films, Universal began production on Creature From the Black Lagoon. Jack Arnold, who had just done It Came From Outer Space, was tapped to direct.

Conceived as an underwater version of Beauty and the Beast, it featured a mythical sea monster dubbed "Gill-Man." Played by Ben Chapman and Ricou Browning, the creature menaced a scientific expedition to the Amazon. Richard Carlson, Richard Denning, Antonio Moreno, Nestor Paiva and Whit Bissell were cast as researchers.

The studio wanted Adams to star as Carlson's girlfriend, Kay Lawrence, who would become the creature's object of desire. But Adams considered the whole thing a step down in her career.

"I thought, 'The creature from what? What is this?'" Adams said in a 2013 interview for the Horror Society, "because I had been working with some major stars and so on. But I read it and said, 'If I turn it down, I won't get paid and I'll be on suspension.' And then I thought, 'What the hay! It might be fun.' And of course, indeed it was. It was a great pleasure to do the picture."

A young Guillermo del Toro was a fan and years later used the movie as inspiration for The Shape of Water.

"The creature was the most beautiful design I'd ever seen," he told THR's Borys Kit in October 2017. "And I saw him swimming under Julie Adams, and I loved that the creature was in love with her, and I felt an almost existential desire for them to end up together. Of course, it didn't happen."

[TTX]

busy day for the Reaper.

[jimsteel]

George Klein, Elvis Presley's Friend and Radio Personality, Dies at 83

George Klein, the deep-voiced radio personality who became friends with Elvis Presley in high school and stayed close to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll throughout his career, has died. He was 83.

Presley’s former wife, Priscilla Presley, told The Associated Press that Klein died Tuesday at hospice in Memphis, Tennessee. Priscilla Presley said Klein had been suffering from illness, including pneumonia, for about two weeks. She said she had been in constant contact with Klein and Presley’s other close friends, including Jerry Schilling and Marian Justice Cocke, while Klein was ill.

Klein met Elvis Presley in 1948 at Humes High School in Memphis and they were close friends until the rock ‘n’ roll icon died in 1977. Klein was part of Presley’s entourage, known as the “Memphis Mafia,” and enjoyed telling stories about the times he and Presley spent together.

Priscilla Presley said her former husband liked Klein’s outgoing personality, his loyalty, and his sense of humor. She called their friendship a “guy’s thing,” with their own inside jokes and “their own language.”

Elvis Presley used to affectionately call Klein “GK.”

“Their friendship was golden, truly golden,” she said in a phone interview from Los Angeles on Tuesday night. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard George say anything bad about anybody.”

Presley served as Klein’s best man, and Klein was a pallbearer at Presley’s funeral. Klein appeared in his friend’s film, “Jailhouse Rock.” When Presley was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, Klein made the acceptance speech.

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BOXER ROCKY LOCKRIDGE DEAD AT 60
Famously Broke Down on 'Intervention'

Former boxing champ Rocky Lockridge -- who later had the most famous appearance on the show "Intervention" -- has passed away at age 60, his family confirms.

Family members tell us Rocky died Thursday morning from complications from a stroke he suffered a while back.

Lockridge was a stud fighter back in the '80s -- racking up multiple titles with victories over guys like Roger Mayweather.

But, he later became addicted to crack cocaine ... and his family brought him on the A&E show, "Intervention," in an effort to get him cleaned up.

During one famous scene, family members were pouring out their hearts to Rocky and he belted out a cry that went viral. It later became an Internet meme known as "best cry ever."

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Frank Robinson -- a Baltimore Orioles superstar and MLB's first-ever black manager -- died at 83

[TTX]

Rough day...a legend...RIP.

[jimsteel]

British actor Albert Finney, the Academy Award-nominated star of films from "Tom Jones" to "Skyfall," has died at the age of 82.

Finney was a rare star who managed to avoid the Hollywood limelight for more than five decades after bursting to international fame in 1963 in the title role of "Tom Jones."

The film gained him the first of five Oscar nominations. Others followed for "Murder on the Orient Express," "The Dresser," "Under the Volcano" and "Erin Brockovich."

In later years he brought authority to action movies, including the James Bond thriller "Skyfall" and two of the Bourne films.

Displaying the versatility of a virtuoso, Finney portrayed Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, a southern American lawyer, an Irish gangster and an 18th-century rogue, among dozens of other roles over the years. There was no "Albert Finney"-type character that he returned to again and again.

In one of his final roles, as the gruff Scotsman Kincade in "Skyfall," he shared significant screen time with Daniel Craig as Bond and Judi Dench as M, turning the film's final scenes into a master class of character acting.

Although Finney rarely discussed his personal life, he told the Manchester Evening News in 2012 that he had been treated for kidney cancer for five years, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.

He also explained why he had not attended the Academy Awards in Los Angeles even when he was nominated for the film world's top prize.

"It seems silly to go over there and beg for an award," he told the paper.

The son of a bookmaker, Finney was born May 9, 1936, and grew up in northern England on the outskirts of Manchester. He took to the stage at an early age, doing a number of school plays and -- despite his lack of connections and his working-class roots -- earning a place at London's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.