R.I.P. CELEBRITY DEATHS 2020(NON WRESTLERS)

[jimsteel]

James Henerson, Writer on 'I Dream of Jeannie' and 'Bewitched,' Dies at 84

e received an Emmy nomination for his work on a telefilm about the 1971 Attica prison uprising.
James Henerson, an Emmy-nominated writer and producer who worked on such shows as I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched and The Flying Nun, has died. He was 84.

Henerson died Thursday in his sleep at his home in Sherman Oaks, his sons, Matthew and Evan, announced.

A staff writer for the famed TV studio Screen Gems, Henerson also wrote episodes of The Partridge Family, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Combat!, National Velvet, Love on a Rooftop, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and The Second Hundred Years.

With partners Jim Hirsch and Michael Douglas, he produced the 1986-87 ABC series Starman, which starred Robert Hays and was based on the John Carpenter-directed film.

He was nominated for an Emmy for writing the 1980 ABC telefilm Attica, based on Tom Wicker's memoir about his experience as a negotiator during the infamous 1971 prison uprising in upstate New York.

And Henerson won a WGA award in 1999 for the CBS telefilm The Love Letter, a time-travel love story starring Campbell Scott and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Born in Brooklyn on Feb. 16, 1936, Henerson grew up in Oakland, California. He earned a bachelor's degree in history at UC Berkeley, where he roomed and did plays with future Incredible Hulk star Bill Bixby.

While attending UCLA to earn his master's and gathering material for Broadway musicals, he took a job as a story editor on the CBS series Lassie in 1958. He went on to pen 36 episodes of NBC's I Dream of Jeannie from 1967-70 and 12 installments of ABC's Bewitched from 1966-69.

He wrote and/or produced several telefilms, including 1985's The Rape of Richard Beck, starring Richard Crenna; 1986's Johnnie Mae Gibson: FBI, starring Howard E. Rollins Jr.; 1991's And the Sea Will Tell…, starring Rachel Ward; 1994's Getting Gotti, starring Lorraine Bracco; and 1999's Mutiny, starring Michael Jai White.

He also scripted and exec produced a 1993 miniseries, The Fire Next Time, about the cataclysmic results of climate change.

[jimsteel]

STEVE BING DEAD AT 55 FROM SUICIDE

Writer/Producer, Liz Hurley's Ex

Steve Bing -- best known for writing "Kangaroo Jack" and investing hugely in the Tom Hanks' film, "The Polar Express" -- has died ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the famed writer/producer died by suicide Monday after jumping from the 27th floor of a luxury apartment building in L.A.'s Century City neighborhood. Bing lived in the building, and sources connected to him tell us he'd been depressed about lack of human contact during quarantine. We don't know if that's behind the suicide.

Bing -- who founded Shangri-La Entertainment -- reportedly dropped out of Stanford his junior year after inheriting around $600 million from his grandfather, who was a real estate developer. After dropping out, Bing pursued a career in Hollywood ... and his first big-budget hit came as executive producer of the Sylvester Stallone film, "Get Carter," in 2000.

He went on to write "Kangaroo Jack" in 2003 ... and later invested nearly $100 million in 'Polar Express.' That was reportedly nearly half the production cost, and it went on to gross nearly $300 million globally at the box office.

Bing also produced "Hotel Noir" in 2012. That same year, Bing committed to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's "Giving Pledge" to give away the majority of his wealth over his lifetime. Bing donated to a lot of progressive issues.

[jimsteel]

Joe Sinnott Passewd away at 93

A comic book artist. Working primarily as an inker, Sinnott is best known for his long stint on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, from 1965 to 1981 (and briefly in the late 1980s), initially over the pencils of Jack Kirby. During his 60 years as a Marvel freelancer and then salaried artist working from home, Sinnott inked virtually every major title, with notable runs on The Avengers, The Defenders and Thor.

Marvel impresario Stan Lee in the mid-2000s cited Sinnott as the company's most in-demand inker, saying jocularly, "

encilers used to hurl all sorts of dire threats at me if I didn't make certain that Joe, and only Joe, inked their pages. I knew I couldn't satisfy everyone and I had to save the very most important strips for [him]. To most pencilers, having Joe Sinnott ink their artwork was tantamount to grabbing the brass ring." Sinnott's art appeared on two US Postal Service commemorative stamps in 2007, and he continued to ink The Amazing Spider-Man Sunday comic strip until his retirement in 2019.

[jimsteel]

'Pop, Lock & Drop It' Rapper Huey Dead at 32 After Missouri Shooting


St. Louis rapper Huey -- best known for his 2007 hit, "Pop, Lock & Drop It" -- is dead after an unsolved shooting incident ... TMZ has confirmed.

Law enforcement tells TMZ ... Huey is one of two men who were shot Thursday in St. Louis County. Huey succumbed to his injuries late Thursday night.

Cops say they got a call about a 32-year-old male shooting victim who'd arrived at a local hospital suffering from at least one apparent gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.



The second man who was shot was transported to a local hospital where he was treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Cops say the shootings are related and say it went down in Kinloch, Missouri, where as many as 10 people were present during the time of the shooting. It remains under investigation.

Huey's "Pop, Lock & Drop It" track was a huge hit back in 2007. It spent 23 weeks on Billboard's Hot 100 chart and peaked at No. 6 before earning double-platinum status.

The track was the single from his "Notebook Paper" album, which included collaborations with T-Pain and Bow Wow. Huey's music also became popular with St. Louis' most famous rapper, Nelly.

[jimsteel]

FORMER NFL, COLLEGE COACH KRUEGER DIES AT 90; BUCS' 1ST GM
Phil Krueger, who helped build a dominant defense as an assistant for 1967 national champion Southern California and later became part of the first coaching staff in Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ history, has died

[jimsteel]

Kelly Asbury Dies: ‘Shrek 2’, ‘Smurfs’ Sequel & ‘Gnomeo & Juliet’ Director Was 60

Kelly Asbury, an animation writer-director and voice actor whose credits include Shrek 2, Smurfs: The Lost Village and Beauty and the Beast, died today after battling cancer for several years. He was 60. His rep Nancy Newhouse Porter of Newhouse Porter Hubbard confirmed the news to Deadline.

“He was one of the most admired and beloved people in the industry,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking for everyone.”

A three-time Annie Awards nominee for helming 2004’s Shrek 2 and writing and directing 2011’s Gnomeo & Juliet, Asbury also was nommed twice by the Cannes Film Festival: He was up for the Palme d’Or for Shrek 2 and the Camera d’Or for best debut feature for 2002’s Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

His also directed last year’s UglyDolls, and his writing credits included co-penning the story for Disney’s 1991 animated classic Beauty and the Beast.

[jimsteel]

Benny Mardones, 'Into the Night' Singer-Songwriter, Dead at 73

Benny Mardones, rock and soul singer-songwriter behind the '80s smash and radio perennial "Into the Night," died today at his home in Menifee, California. His passing was confirmed to Billboard by longtime friend and record producer Joel Diamond, resulting from complications following a long struggle with Parkinson's disease. He was 73.

Mardones was born in Cleveland, Ohio and grew up in Savage, Maryland, joining the Navy out of high school to serve in the Vietnam War. Following his discharge, he moved to New York to become a songwriter, where he was enlisted by Diamond to be a staff songwriter for Mercury Records, penning material for stars like Brenda Lee and Tommy James. Various other credits followed, and in the late '70s Mardones also became a performing artist, opening for folk-rocker Richie Havens on tour in 1977 and releasing debut album Thank God For Girls the year after.

Despite impressive pedigree, including guitar work from David Bowie sideman Mick Ronson and production from Rolling Stones go-to collaborator Andrew Loog Oldham, the album failed to produce a hit. But Mardones' next effort, 1980's Never Run, Never Hide, spawned what would quickly become his signature song: the mega-ballad "Into the Night."

Co-penned with Robert Tepper (later a hitmaker on his own with Rocky IV anthem "No Easy Way Out"), "Into the Night" was a soaring love song with an absolute wallop of a chorus. Though the opening lines ("She's just 16 years old/ 'Leave her alone,' they said") made many listeners uncomfortable coming from the then-33-year-old Mardones, he would later explain the song was inspired by his platonic relationship with a teenage neighbor of his whose father had left her. (The first line was supposedly meant as a rejoinder to his co-writer, who got a little leery when meeting her for the first time.)

Elevated by Mardones' powerhouse vocal performance -- influenced by his love of both Pavarotti and Teddy Pendergrass -- "Into the Night" began climbing the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 11 in September of 1980. But a second hit failed to follow, either off Never Run, Never Hide (which reached No. 65 on the Billboard 200 albums chart) or 1981 follow-up Too Much to Lose. Issues with his Polydor label and with his own substance abuse took their toll on the singer-songwriter, who had largely washed out of the music industry within a couple years.

[jimsteel]

R.I.P. soul singer and Aretha backup Sandra Feva

She is another in the line of talented singers who made the 1970s a tremendous decade for soul music. Today we say a sad goodbye to vocalist Sandra Feva.

Born as Sandra Richardson, Feva may be best known for her work as a background singer for Aretha Franklin, Parliament, and Prince. But she also moved to the front of the stage for several albums in the 70s and early 80s on multiple labels. And what a voice! Compared at times to Aretha or perhaps even more, Gladys Knight, she had the talent to be a star.

“Tell ‘Em I Heard It” was a top 40 hit in 1981, and followed more regional success with “Love To Be Your Woman,”, “I Feel A Song” and “The Need to Be.” Feva continued to record sporadically into the late 80s, and charted last in 1987 with “Here Now,” as she focused more on her work supporting other artists.

[TTX]

RIP Sandra

[jimsteel]

BIG NAME



Carl Reiner Dead at 98

We're told Reiner died Monday night at his Beverly Hills home. We're told his family was with him when he passed.

Reiner was a producer. He was also a director. He was also an actor. He was also a Grammy winner. He won 9 Emmys in over 7 decades. He has more than 400 credits.

Where to begin? Well, for all you youngins' ... you may have caught Carl in "Toy Story 4."

For most people ... they remember Carl best for "The Dick Van Dyke Show," which he created and starred in. Carl played the role of a very temperamental comedian -- Alan Brady -- who terrorized Dick Van Dyke's character and the other writers. Oh, and there was this new actress Carl cast for Dick's wife -- Mary Tyler Moore.

Carl made a best-selling album with Mel Brooks called "2000 Years with Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks" which earned a Grammy nomination and sparked his writing career.

There were other smash hits, including directing "Oh God" with George Burns and "The Jerk" with Steve Martin. He worked with Martin on several movies, including "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," "Man with Two Brains" and "All of Me."

Reiner appeared in a bunch of TV shows and movies, including "The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming," and "Enter Laughing."

The directing credits are endless -- "Summer Rental" with John Candy, "Summer School" with Mark Harmon, "That Old Feeling" with Bette Midler and "Sibling Rivalry" with Kirstie Alley and Carrie Fisher.

Carl appeared on lots of hit TV shows, including "Two and a Half Men," "Hot in Cleveland" and "House." He was also in "Ocean's 11" and "Ocean's Thirteen."