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He was, and always will be, a legend.
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http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/15/showbi...bit/index.html
Tom Laughlin, the actor who wrote and starred in the "Billy Jack" films of the 1970s, died Thursday, his family confirmed Sunday. He was 82.
Laughlin's Billy Jack character was a heroic Native American ex-Army Green Beret who used his karate skills to fight racism and oppression.
The second of the series -- titled "Billy Jack" -- was a low-budget independent film that became a box-office blockbuster in 1971. Laughlin's vigilante character defends a counterculture "Freedom School" from townspeople who harass and discriminate against the Native American students.
The film was criticized by those who saw its central theme as a message that violence was an answer to injustice.
Laughlin resorted to renting theaters himself to show the film after Hollywood studios refused to distribute it.
The Billy Jack character first appeared in "The Born Losers" in 1967, fighting a motorcycle gang. Laughlin co-wrote and directed the film.
Laughlin later attempted a political career, putting his name on presidential primary ballots in 1992, 2004 and 2008.
Laughlin's acting career began with TV and film roles in the 1950s, including a "lover boy" role in Sandra Dee's 1959 beach movie "Gidget."
His wife of 60 years, Delores Taylor, also acted in his "Billy Jack" films.
Laughlin died near his Thousand Oaks, California, home Thursday, his family said.
He is survived by his wife, three children and five grandchildren
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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/new...spicion-665831
Joan Fontaine, the polished actress who achieved stardom in the early 1940s with memorable performances in the Alfred Hitchcock films Suspicion — for which she earned the best actress Oscar over her bitter rival, sister Olivia de Havilland — and Rebecca, has died. She was 96.
THR awards analyst Scott Feinberg spoke Sunday with the actress' assistant, Susan Pfeiffer, who confirmed the death of natural causes at Fontaine's home in Carmel, Calif.
Fontaine earned a third best actress Oscar nomination for her role in The Constant Nymph (1943), She also was notable as Charlotte Bronte's eponymous heroine in Jane Eyre (1944) opposite Orson Welles; in the romantic thriller September Affair (1950) with Joseph Cotton; in Ivanhoe (1952) with Robert Taylor; and in Island in the Sun (1957), where she plays a high-society woman in love with an up-and-coming politician (Harry Belafonte).
It was Hitchcock, with his penchant for “cool blondes,” who brought Fontaine to the forefront when he cast her as the second Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca (1940), the director’s American debut. Her performance as the new wife of Laurence Olivier in a household haunted by the death of his first wife earned her an Academy Award nomination for best actress.
A year later, Hitchcock placed her opposite Cary Grant in Suspicion, and she won the Oscar for her turn as Lina McLaidlaw Aysgarth, a shy English woman who begins to suspect her charming new husband of trying to kill her. She thus became the only actor to win an Oscar in a Hitchcock film.
Among those Fontaine beat out at the 1942 Academy Awards was her older sister de Havilland, up for Hold Back the Dawn (1941). Biographer Charles Higham wrote that as Fontaine came forward to accept her trophy, she rejected de Havilland’s attempt to congratulate her and that de Havilland was offended. The sisters, who never really got along since childhood, finally stopped speaking to each other in the mid-’70s.Last edited by Mister.Weirdo; 12-16-2013, 05:14 AM.Comment
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Yo.
Tazer
Originally posted by Andrew NDBComment
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Yo.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/16/showbiz/obit-ray-price/
Nashville pioneer Ray Price dead at 87
TazerLast edited by Tazer; 12-24-2013, 04:42 PM.
Originally posted by Andrew NDBComment
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AK-47 rifle inventor Mikhail Kalashnikov dies at 94
Mikhail Kalashnikov, the Russian designer of the AK-47 assault rifle which has killed more people than any other firearm in the world, died on Monday aged 94, officials said.
Kalashnikov, who was in his 20s when he created the AK-47, died in his home city of Izhevsk near the Ural Mountains, where his gun is still made, a spokesman for the Udmurtia province's president said on state television.
No cause of death was given. Kalashnikov was fitted with a pacemaker at a Moscow hospital in June and had been in hospital in Izhevsk since November 17, state media reported. ...
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A truly impressive feat of engineering. Most people don't appreciate how well thought out innovative firearms need to be; how everything is thought out and pictured in your head and made to work. This guy really knew his stuff. He was also a farmer, an avid hunter, and a poet.
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Agreed. The AK is unlikely to be truly surpassed in the assault rifle category. They may make features (attachments and modifications to clips) that make them easier for the shooter, but as far as the basics go, they don't get much more impressive.Originally posted by Big Daddy Dave View Post
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http://atlantablackstar.com/2013/12/...llack-dead-54/
Jeffrey Pollack, a producer of “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air“ died on Monday at the age of 54, from what police believe is natural causes while exercising in Hermosa Beach, Calif.
The Manhattan Beach Patch reported that Pollack’s body was found by a woman jogging. He was found wearing exercise clothes and with an iPod that was still playing music.
“It’s still unknown how he died, we’re not sure if it was a heart attack. But there were no signs of foul play,” Hermosa Beach Police Department Capt. Tommy Thompson told EasyReaderNews.com. He added that the iPod was playing Eagles music and that when police arrived, Pollack was already deceased.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Pollack directed three movies: “Above the Rim” (1994), the story of a rising basketball star and his troubled brothers starring Duane Martin and Tupac Shakur; “Booty Call” (1997) and the 1999 David Spade vehicle “Lost & Found.”
Born in Los Angeles, Pollack graduated from the film school at the University of Southern California in the early 1980s and spent three years in Asia as a tourist and documentarian.
Upon returning to the United States, he embarked upon a film career and founded a production company with Benny Medina. In 1990, the two helped create “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,“ which was inspired by Medina’s experiences living with Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr. while attending Beverly Hills High School.
Pollack is survived by a son and a daughter.Last edited by Mister.Weirdo; 12-26-2013, 11:57 PM.Comment
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Yo.
Tazer
Originally posted by Andrew NDBComment
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http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainm...at-67-20132712
Tracey Ullman's husband Allan McKeown died Tuesday, Dec. 24 at age 67, Variety reported Thursday, Dec. 26. The Emmy Award winning producer passed away at his Los Angeles home following a long battle with prostate cancer.
The London-born producer first worked as a hairdresser back in the '60s and had an impressive array of clients, according to Variety, including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and The Beatles.
In 1983, McKeown married Ullman in L.A., where he worked at the time for Paramount and Fox Studios. He later became the co-creator and producer of his wife's comedy shows, including HBO's Tracey Takes On… and Showtime's State of the Union. In 1997, the two won an Emmy for Outstanding Variety Musical Comedy Series for Tracey Takes On…
McKeown later went on to produce the UK stage version of Jerry Springer the Musical (2004) and Broadway's Lennon the Musical (2005) with Yoko Ono.
He is survived by his wife and their two kids, son Johnny and daughter Mabel.Comment
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http://www.cleveland.com/comic-books...ought_sup.html
Jerry Fine dies, he brought Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster together
If it was not for Jerome Fine, we may never have had Superman.
Family members said this morning that Fine, 97, of Cleveland Heights, died Dec. 25.
Sometime in the early 1930s, Jerome Fine heard that his friend, Joe Shuster, was transferring to Glenville High School.
"Joe and I went to elementary school together and he was always an amazing artist," Fine said in 2009 at the first (and only) meeting of the Siegel and Shuster families in Cleveland. "I remember he created the most incredible colored maps and he showed me how he did it. We did a comic strip together for the newspaper called "Jerry The Journalist," where I was depicted as a grasshopper."
Fine urged Shuster to look up his cousin, Jerry Siegel, when he got to Glenville High School. "He did and they started working together at the Glenville Torch," Fine said. "The rest is history, isn't it?"
And what a history it is. Siegel and Shuster began a working relationship that came to fruition in 1938 when Superman graced the cover of the first issue of "Action Comics" No. 1, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
Fine's brother, Irving, carries on the family legacy as a founding member of the Siegel and Shuster Society, a non-profit group formed to honor the two men and their creation.
RIP!
Without him we may have never had Superman.Comment
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R.I.P. good sir.Comment
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