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

[jimsteel]

Former AC/DC bassist Paul Matters has died

The late Paul Matters played with AC/DC in 1975, before being fired by Bon Scott

[jimsteel]

“Whiskey River” Country Legend Johnny Bush Has Passed Away at 85

[jimsteel]

Sid Hartman, Legendary Minnesota Sports Journalist, Dies At Age 100

Hartman’s newspaper and radio offerings were gospel for most of his 100 years on this earth. He was passionate, relentless and one of the major reasons why Minnesota is a major league state — and he did it the old fashioned way.

Born in 1920 to immigrant parents, Hartman grew up on the north side of Minneapolis. He sold newspapers as a child to help his family make ends meet. It was a job that created the work ethic that would define him.

“I was 12 years old, riding my bike to drive and sell papers around town to help out with my family,” Hartman said.

The iconic figure appreciated his career, because he appreciated where he came from. Hartman was a high school dropout who persevered.

“I quit high school in 10th grade when I got a job in circulation,” Hartman said. “I’m just lucky, that’s all.”

Before long, he started writing for the paper, and over the next eight decades his columns became must-reads. His relentless pursuit of scoops, both big and small, became the stuff of legend.

He also helped run the Minneapolis Lakers, and they won titles, eventually becoming the Los Angeles Lakers.

Hartman’s impact on the sports world cannot be overstated. Athletes, coaches and executives alike remember his ability to build and maintain relationships. His career and personal life blended into one. The people he covered became his friends because they learned Hartman was on their side. One of those athletes was legendary Minnesota Vikings quarterback Fran Tarkenton.

“He’s the greatest journalist, most honest, forthcoming journalist, sports journalist that I’ve ever know,” Tarkenton said. “He could get an interview with anybody.”

He was honored again and again because of that, including by Minnesota Twins icon Rod Carew.

When he was 61, Hartman started the Sports Huddle on WCCO Radio with co-host Dave Mona. The weekly sports show became a staple for sports fans, and lasted 40 years on air.

On March 15, 2020, he turned 100 years old. He celebrated on WCCO Radio. Because of COVID-19, it would be his last radio broadcast.

[jimsteel]

Tragedy has struck legendary actor Robert Redford's family. On Monday, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that James Redford, the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid actor's son, has died after a battle with liver cancer. His wife, Kyle Redford, confirmed the news on Twitter. He was 58

James, who was referred to as Jamie by those closest to him, reportedly died from bile-duct cancer in his liver. He was 58. James' past liver disease returned two years ago. In November, the cancer was discovered in his bile-duct while he was awaiting a transplant. James dealt with a number of health issues throughout his life. When James and his then-girlfriend and future wife Kyle Smith moved to Chicago for graduate studies, he was diagnosed with both colitis and sclerosis cholangitis, an autoimmune disease that damaged his liver. He reportedly got his first liver transplant in early 1993, but it later proved to be unsuccessful due to a faulty valve in the replacement organ. Another liver was located for James on the July 4th weekend in 1993.

After his surgeries, James founded the James Redford Institute for Transplant Awareness, a nonprofit organization that aims to educate the public about organ and tissue donation. Through his work with the institute, James, who followed in his father's footsteps by engaging in a career in the entertainment industry, produced his first documentary The Kindness of Strangers, which was released in 1999. James has worked on and directed a number of documentary films over the years including Toxic Hot Seat, Paper Tigers, and The Big Picture: Rethinking Dyslexia, the latter of which was inspired by his son Dylan and his struggles with dyslexia during high school.

Not only did James work on multiple features and open up his own institute to raise transplant awareness, but he and Robert also founded The Redford Center in 2005. The center, which is based in San Francisco, produces films and provides grants to filmmakers so that they can "accelerate environmental and climate justice, solutions, and repair." James was the co-chair of the center's board of directors until the time of his passing.

[TTX]

RIP to the deceased.

[jimsteel]

Another musician


Spencer Davis dead: Keep On Running hitmaker dies aged 81

[jimsteel]

Tony Lewis, Singer of The Outfield’s “Your Love”, Dies at 62

[jimsteel]

Broadway actress Doreen Montalvo, who is set to appear in upcoming film adaptations of musicals "In the Heights" and "West Side Story," died at 56.

[throwingtoasters]

James Randi Dies: 'The Amazing Randi' Performer And Paranormal Skeptic Was 92

James Randi, a magician whose many TV appearances led him to a second career as a respected paranormal investigator, has died at 92. The James Randi Foundation confirmed his death in a tweet on Tuesday, saying he died of “age-related causes.”

Born Randall James Zwinge in 1928, he entered show business as a teenager, touring with a carnival and working nightclubs in his native Toronto, Canada. Initially billed as The Great Randall: Telepath, he parlayed that name into a mind-reading act and a knack for predicting the future.
Unlike many magicians and performers, Randi was not averse to letting fans know that he was a trickster, relying on subterfuge and slight of hand to pull off his tricks. As his career grew, adding escape artist to his bag of stunts, he grew increasingly worried about the people who refused to embrace the fact that it was all an act.

Thus, even as his career blossomed into national prominence and frequent television appearances on TV talk shows and the children’s show Wonderama, he also began a quest to prove to the masses that they were being deceived.
In 1964, during an appearance on a radio talk show, he offered $1,000 to anyone who could show scientific evidence of supernatural powers. Soon afterward, he began broadcasting his own national radio show dedicated to discussion of the paranormal.

Randi continued his money challenges, eventually increasing the funding to $10,000. But in 1973, he met a man named Uri Geller, an Israeli immigrant who claimed to be a mind-reader and telekinetic with the power to bend spoons. They battled over the legitimacy of Geller’s claimed talents, with the ultimate showdown being staged on the Johnny Carson Tonight Show. Geller failed on that program under Randi’s watchful eye and his preparation of the stage crew, but it barely dented Geller’s career.

A frustrated Randi was prompted to form the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (Csicop), its works funded by donations and by sales of a new magazine, which became The Skeptical Inquirer. That launched Randi into a new phase of his career, traveling the globe as a debunker of everything from telekinesis to ghosts. He won a 1986 MacArthur Grant for his work, but legal battles with Geller took its toll, financially and personally, with Randi being forced to resign when his Csicop colleague asked him to stop pursuing his white whale Geller, as the legal costs were too much.

No memorial plans have been announced.

[throwingtoasters]

Randi was an amazing guy. Sorry to hear of his passing.