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Post by gth (Columbus OH) on Jan 1, 2021 0:11:03 GMT -5
This is a continuation of the annual topics at That Other Place started by bytebug, commemorating deaths of famous and notable people during the year.
As we do not have the 4 page lookback limitation of That Other Place, feel free to post personal reminisces you may have about those persons.
The 2020 version of this topic may be found here.
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Post by gth (Columbus OH) on Jan 3, 2021 10:49:03 GMT -5
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Post by SUVFan on Jan 3, 2021 21:39:41 GMT -5
All Pro RB Floyd Little passed away on New Years Day at the age of 78. Cancer was the reported cause of his death. He was a three-time All-American at Syracuse University, and in 1967 was the sixth selection of the 1967 NFL/AFL draft, the first common draft. He was the first first-round draft pick to sign with the AFL's Broncos, where he was known as "the Franchise". Little was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010.
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Post by SUVFan on Jan 4, 2021 8:29:09 GMT -5
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Post by SUVFan on Jan 4, 2021 11:53:07 GMT -5
Gerry Marsden, lead singer of the 1960s British group Gerry and the Pacemakers (the "other" band from Liverpool) that had such hits as “Ferry Cross the Mersey” and the song that became the anthem of Liverpool Football Club, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” passed away yesterday at the age of 78 from complications of a non-COVID related heart infection. Mardson wrote the song sitting on the Liverpool ferry while crossing the Mersey.
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Post by gth (Columbus OH) on Jan 4, 2021 13:35:33 GMT -5
Actress Tanya Roberts, 65, died Sunday (January 3). No cause of death was given, but her publicist said it was not COVID-19. She had collapsed December 24 and was taken to a hospital.
Robert's most notable role was Bond girl Stacey Sutton, opposite Roger Moore in his last James Bond movie A View To a Kill in 1985. She also starred in That '70s Show, and appeared in the fifth and final season of Charlie's Angels in 1980, in the role originally played by Kate Jackson.
UPDATE: Roberts actually died Monday night (January 4). Original reports of her death were premature.
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Post by SUVFan on Jan 8, 2021 12:44:32 GMT -5
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Post by gth (Columbus OH) on Jan 8, 2021 20:03:32 GMT -5
Beat me to it, SUVFan ! Tommy LaSorda was definitely a "colorful" character. I heard that clip and went, "Wow -- just wow!". That actually was a great putdown if you subtract all the F-bombs and crudities! LOL!
You left off one accomplishment: Tommy LaSorda came out of retirement to manage the USA baseball team to the gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
I think I saw him last in Weight Watchers commercials, bragging about all the weight he lost, saying I"m feeling great!" No word on whether he gained weight back again after he taped those commercials!
Tommy LaSorda, RIP.
UPDATE: Not that it matters, but I think it was actually an "Ultra SlimFast" commercial!
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Post by SUVFan on Jan 14, 2021 19:26:31 GMT -5
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Post by gth (Columbus OH) on Jan 14, 2021 19:46:28 GMT -5
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Post by gth (Columbus OH) on Jan 15, 2021 22:51:26 GMT -5
I missed this passing which happened in 2020 -- but I just had that topic locked, so here it is:
Aviation pioneer Chuck Yeager, 97, passed away December 7, 2020. Yeager earned the title "the fastest man alive" by being the first man to break the sound barrier, achieving Macch 1.06 in the experimental aircraft X1 in October 14, 1947.
A World War II Army Air Corps fighter pilot, Yeager shot down 13 German aircraft, then evaded capture when he was shot down over occupied France. After the war, he became a test pilot and made history. His story was featured in Tom Wolf'e book "The Right Stuff" which later became a movie.
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Post by SUVFan on Jan 17, 2021 17:11:11 GMT -5
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Post by gth (Columbus OH) on Jan 18, 2021 9:13:19 GMT -5
Phil Specter was as brilliant a record producer in the early years of rock and roll as he was a troubled, temperamental and dangerous human being. He dominated the groups he worked with such as the Ronettes, while pioneering his "Wall of Sound" style. But when he came back to work on the Beatles' "Let It Be" album, he clashed with Paul McCartney, who later rereleased the album shorn of some of Specter's contributions.
'Spector’s domestic life, along with his career, eventually came apart. After his first marriage, to Annette Merar, broke up, Ronettes leader singer Ronnie Bennett became his girlfriend and muse. He married her in 1968 and they adopted three children. But she divorced him after six years, claiming in a memoir that he held her prisoner in their mansion, where she said he kept a gold coffin in the basement and told her he would kill her and put her in it if she ever tried to leave him.
When the Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, Spector sent along his congratulations. But in an acceptance speech by his ex-wife, she never mentioned him while thanking numerous other people.
On Sunday Ronnie Spector said, “he was a brilliant producer, but a lousy husband.”
“Unfortunately Phil was not able to live and function outside of the recording studio,” she wrote on Instagram. “Darkness set in, many lives were damaged. I still smile whenever I hear the music we made together, and always will. The music will be forever.”'
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Post by SUVFan on Jan 18, 2021 18:46:26 GMT -5
I'm sure that, not unlike like Phil Spector, many murderers have had various talents. When a person commits murder, most appropriately, that tends to overshadow everything else they accomplished. While he certainly did all the things GTH's post above credits him with, in the end Spector was a convicted murderer. How could anything else he did compensate for his intentional taking of an innocent person's life? Sirius XM's personality Pat St. John struggled a short while ago, uncomfortably wrestling with his words as he introduced the album version of Let It Be, which the murderer produced . St. John felt it was important to note that, unlike with other times when music notables passed away, he was not playing the song as a tribute but as an acknowledgment. That seemed fitting. Regarding the woman Spector killed, from the A/P article I linked yesterday: Maybe the murderer's death in prison can serve as some sort of poetic justice for Lana Clarkson's family. |
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Post by gth (Columbus OH) on Jan 18, 2021 19:46:01 GMT -5
SUVFan, your post reminds me of another talented celebrity who is now and always will be remembered for the murder of his wife and her lover -- the very much alive and never convicted (at least of those murders) OJ Simpson. His crime eclipses the many accomplishments of his previous life, including his college and NFL football career.
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