PW: Most public battles with cancer are cast as heroic. Wells would have none of that bollocks. He was scared shitless, and said as much because it’s the only reasonable human response. He was mad as hell at the unfairness of it all, because, again, it is the only reasonable response. And by the end he was sick of it all—the pain, the indignity, and the boredom of dying. What made Steven heroic was his willingness to say as much for publication, in lieu of some phony brave face. If nothing else, he innovated the lost art of dying honestly. […]
RIP: Michael Jackson Dead At 50
ROLLING STONE: The Los Angeles Times is reporting that law enforcement and city officials have confirmed that Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died today after suffering what has been reported as cardiac arrest. Jackson was 50. According to reports, Jackson was not breathing when paramedics were called to his Los Angeles home this afternoon, June 25th. Paramedics at the scene performed CPR on the singer, who was then transported to the UCLA Medical Center. Jackson arrived at the hospital in a deep coma, and attempts to resuscitate Jackson failed as he was completely unresponsive. MORE NEW YORK TIMES: As […]
RIP: Farrah Fawcett Dead At 62
WASHINGTON POST: Farrah Fawcett, 62, golden-haired sex symbol of the late 1970s most remembered for her appearance on bedroom posters and the detective series “Charlie’s Angels” and who later found a niche portraying troubled women in made-for-television dramas, died today from cancer. Ms. Fawcett was a Texas-born college dropout who parlayed success as a model for toiletries such as Ultra Brite toothpaste and Wella Balsam shampoo into a viable acting career. Still a relative unknown, she achieved two iconic roles at the same time in 1976. On Wednesday nights, she was Jill Munroe, the blond Angel on the ABC detective […]
GOODNIGHT MR. WELLS: PW Writer Extraordinaire Steven Wells Loses Long, Public Battle With Cancer
Damn. Steven Wells was THE funniest, ballsiest, take-no-prisoners writer to grace the pages of Philadelphia print media in recent memory. His long, tragic battle with cancer was no secret, he wrote about it with the same unflinching honesty, hair-on-fire rage, savage wit and gallows humor he wrote about everything. Sir, it was a privilege and an honor. You will be sorely missed. Good night Mr. Wells, wherever you are. PW: Steven Wells Farewell Column WIKIPEDIA: Steven Wells is was a British journalist and author currently based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Born in Swindon, England in 1960, Wells moved to the […]
ED MCHMAHON RIP: You Were Correct, Sir!
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Notwithstanding the dozen years of hosting “Star Search,” a role in the 1997 Tom Arnold sitcom “The Tom Show,” a high-profile Cash4Gold ad during the last Super Bowl and all that knocking on people’s doors in the name of the Publishers Clearing House, McMahon was a professional sidekick, a less-than-equal partner in an enterprise of which he was nevertheless a vital part: Thinking of Johnny, one proceeds quickly and naturally to Ed, who by dint of association was almost as famous as his boss — I say “almost” to include that fraction of the world that may […]
THE VENTURES: Walk Don’t Run
ROLLING STONE: Bob Bogle, lead guitarist and co-founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band the Ventures, passed away on June 14th, the band’s Don Wilson told their native Tacoma, Washington’s News Tribune. Bogle, who suffered from non-Hodgkin lymphoma for the past several years, became ill this weekend and was taken to the hospital, where he died at the age of 75. Bogle and Wilson were construction workers who moonlighted as musicians when they formed the Ventures in 1958, and two years later their classic rendition of the instrumental “Walk, Don’t Run” catapulted the surf-rock band up the […]
BILL KILLED: David Carradine Dead At 72
BBC: Kill Bill and Kung Fu star David Carradine has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room on Thursday. Thai police told the BBC the 72-year-old was found naked by a hotel maid in a wardrobe with a cord around his neck and other parts of his body. The US star was in Thailand filming his latest film, Stretch, according to his personal manager Chuck Binder. Thai newspaper The Nation reported that police believe the actor took his own life, and preliminary investigations found that he hanged himself. Carradine was part of an acting dynasty which included his father, […]
RIP: Koko Taylor, Chicago Blues Icon, Dead At 80
[Koko Taylor – Up In Flames (Wild At Heart)] LOS ANGELES TIMES: Koko Taylor, a Chicago musical icon who became one of the most revered female blues vocalists of her time with signature hits such as “Wang Dang Doodle,” “I’m a Woman” and “Hey Bartender,” died Wednesday at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago of complications from gastrointestinal surgery. She was 80. Her death came less than four weeks after her last performance, at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, where she collected her record 29th Blues Music Award. She had surgery May 19 and appeared to be recovering until taking […]
RIP: Jay Bennett, Ex-Wilco, Dead At 45
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Multi-instrumentalist and former member of Wilco Jay Bennett died this weekend, according to a post on the website for Undertow Music Collective. He was 45. A cause of death was unknown. “We are profoundly saddened to report that our friend died in his sleep last night. Jay was a beautiful human being who will be missed,” read the update on Undertow. The company released his 2002 solo album, “Palace at 4 am (Part I).” Representatives from the label and management firm had not responded to requests for comment as of Sunday evening, but the Chicago Sun-Times reached […]
EXIT THE FATMAN: Dom Deluise Dead At 75
WASHINGTON POST: Dom DeLuise, 75, the rotund comic actor whose frequent television appearances in the 1960s and 1970s helped propel a career in films in which he often teamed with director Mel Brooks and actor Burt Reynolds, died May 4 at a hospital in Santa Monica, Calif. He had high blood pressure and diabetes, a family spokesman said. Mr. DeLuise had a broad, slapstick style of physical humor that was derived largely from his idol, Jackie Gleason. He was a master improviser of throwaway lines, gestures and bug-eyed looks of surprise delivered with casually perfect timing. He often played outlandish […]
AND THEN THERE WAS MAUDE: Bea Arthur RIP
LOS ANGELES TIMES: “God will get you for that, Walter.” Nobody could do more with these words than Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay on the marital warpath. She could slingshot them in fury or release them in a chilling deadpan, but however she delivered them you could be sure they’d hit their mark with a prizefighter’s pop. All the tributes that will be lavished on Arthur, who died Saturday at 86, will extol her impeccable comic timing. Her ability to detonate a joke, to momentarily harness a punch line before releasing at full force, brought her Emmy-winning success in two […]
RIP: Author J.G. Ballard Dead At 78
THE GUARDIAN: The novelist JG Ballard, who conjured up a bleak vision of modern life in a series of powerful novels and short stories published over more than 50 years, has died after a long battle with cancer. MORE THE TIMES ONLINE: Pinteresque, Dickensian, Shakespearean. Not many writers are so distinctive and influential that their name becomes an adjective in its own right. J.G. Ballard, who died yesterday morning after a long battle with cancer at the age of 78, was one of them. “Ballardian” is defined in the Collins English Dictionary as: “adj) 1. of James Graham Ballard (born […]
RIP: Harry Kalas, Voice Of The Phillies, Dead At 73
[Photo by jasonford] INQUIRER: Harry Kalas, the Phillies’ Hall of Fame announcer, died at 1:20 p.m. today, the Phillies announced. Mr. Kalas collapsed in the press box at Nationals Stadium in Washington at about 12:30 p.m. and was rushed to George Washington University Medial Center. The cause of the death was not announced. Today’s game against the Nationals will be played, but the team will not visit the White House tomorrow. MORE PREVIOUSLY: Legendary Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas has been taken by ambulance to a Washington area hospital after he was found passed out in the press box at Nationals […]