The RIP Thread

[Frothy Afterbirth]

[continued]

A follow-up in 1983, “Smorgasbord” (also known as “Cracking Up”), proved a misfire, and Mr. Lewis never directed another feature film. He did, however, enjoy a revival as an actor, thanks largely to his powerful performance in a dramatic role in Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy” (1982) as a talk-show host kidnapped by an aspiring comedian (Robert De Niro) desperate to become a celebrity. He appeared in the television series “Wiseguy” in 1988 and 1989 as a garment manufacturer threatened by the mob, and was memorable in character roles in Emir Kusturica’s “Arizona Dream” (1993) and Peter Chelsom’s “Funny Bones” (1995). Mr. Lewis

played Mr. Applegate (a.k.a. the Devil) in a Broadway revival of the musical “Damn Yankees” in 1995 and later took the show on an international tour.

Although he retained a preternaturally youthful appearance for many years, Mr. Lewis had a series of serious illnesses in his later life, including prostate cancer, pulmonary fibrosis and two heart attacks. Drug treatments caused his weight to balloon alarmingly, though he recovered enough to continue performing well into the new millennium. He was appearing in one-man shows as recently as 2016.

Through it all, Mr. Lewis continued his charity work, serving as national chairman of the Muscular Dystrophy Association and, beginning in 1966, hosting the association’s annual Labor Day weekend telethon. Although some advocates for the rights of the disabled criticized the association’s “Jerry’s Kids” campaign as condescending, the telethon raised about $2 billion during the more than 40 years he was host.

For reasons that remain largely unexplained but were apparently related to a disagreement with the association’s president, Gerald C. Weinberg, the 2010 telethon was Mr. Lewis’s last — he had been scheduled to make an appearance on the 2011 telethon but did not — and he had no further involvement with the charity until 2016, when he lent his support via a promotional video. (The telethon was shortened and eventually discontinued.)

During the 1976 telethon, Frank Sinatra staged an on-air reunion between Mr. Lewis and Mr. Martin, to the visible discomfort of both men. A more lasting reconciliation came in 1987, when Mr. Lewis attended the funeral of Mr. Martin’s oldest son, Dean Paul Martin Jr., a pilot in the California Air National Guard who had been killed in a crash. They continued to speak occasionally until Mr. Martin died in 1995.

In 2005, Mr. Lewis collaborated with James Kaplan on “Dean and Me (A Love Story),” a fond memoir of his years with Mr. Martin in which he placed most of the blame for their breakup on himself. Among Mr. Lewis’s other books was “The Total Film-Maker,” a compendium of his lectures at the film school of the University of Southern California, where he taught, beginning in 1967.

In 1983, Mr. Lewis married SanDee Pitnick, and in 1992 their daughter, Danielle Sara, was born. Besides his wife and daughter, survivors include his sons Christopher, Scott, Gary and Anthony, and several grandchildren.

Although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences never honored Mr. Lewis for his film work, he received the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for his charitable activity in 2009. His many other honors included two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame — one for his movie work, the other for television — and an induction into the Légion d’Honneur, awarded by the French government in 2006.

In 2015, the Library of Congress announced that it had acquired Mr. Lewis’s personal archives. In a statement, he said, “Knowing that the Library of Congress was interested in acquiring my life’s work was one of the biggest thrills of my life.”

Mr. Lewis was officially recognized as a “towering figure in cinema” at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The festival’s tribute to him included the screening of a preliminary cut of “Max Rose,” Mr. Lewis’s first movie in almost 20 years, in which he starred as a recently widowed jazz pianist in search of answers about his past.

The film did not have its United States premiere until 2016, when it was shown as part of a Lewis tribute at the Museum of Modern Art. Also in 2016, he appeared briefly as the father of Nicolas Cage’s character in the crime drama “The Trust.”

In 2012, Mr. Lewis directed a stage musical in Nashville based on “The Nutty Professor.” The show, with a score by Marvin Hamlisch and book and lyrics by Rupert Holmes, never made it to Broadway, but Mr. Lewis relished the challenge of directing for the stage, a first for him.

“There’s something about the risk, the courage that it takes to face the risk,” he told The New York Times. “I’m not going to get greatness unless I have to go at it with fear and uncertainty.’’

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

Here's one of my favorite scenes with Jerry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blRtdUOTqWM

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Comic actor Jay Thomas is dead at 69
Brian Niemietz
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Thursday, August 24, 2017, 1:54 PM



“Ray Donovan” actor Jay Thomas has lost his battle with cancer. He was 69.

The sad news comes from his agent and longtime friend Don Buchwald.

“Jay was one of a kind, never at a loss for words and filled with so much fun and wonderfully whacky thoughts and behavior,” wrote Buchwald, who repped

Thomas for 35 years. Thomas’ wife Sally and his sons Sam, Jake and J.T. were by his side at his Santa Barabara, Cali. home when he passed.

Thomas was perhaps best known for playing Jerry Gold on “Murphy Brown” from 1989-1998. He also played Rhea Perlman’s TV husband Eddie LeBec on “Cheers”

from 1987-1989 before his character was run over by a zamboni. Thomas starred on the hit sitcom "Love & War" from 1992-1995.

Talk show fans remember Thomas from his holiday visits on “Late Night with David Letterman” where he and the host would try and knock a meatball off the top of a

Christmas tree by throwing footballs.During that annual visit, Thomas would always tell what became known as “The Lone Ranger” story in which he had a bizarre encounter with actor Clayton Moore, who played the masked cowboy in the classic western series. Thomas’ “Late Night” Christmas tradition started in 1998 and ended in 2014, shortly before Letterman retired.

Thomas also hosted a popular radio show on SiriusXM.

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

'Cheers' actor Jay Thomas dead at 69
Michael Ausiello
TVLine.com August 24, 2017

Sitcom vet Jay Thomas, best known for his recurring roles on Cheers and Murphy Brown, has died. He was 69.

In a statement to the NY Daily News, Thomas’ rep, Don Buchwald, said, “Jay was one of a kind, never at a loss for words and filled with so much fun and wonderfully whacky thoughts and behavior.”

The actor had been battling cancer.

On Murphy Brown, Thomas played Jerry Gold, tabloid talk show host and love interest/baby daddy for Candice Bergen’s titular character. He won two Emmys for the role. Meanwhile, on Cheers, he played Carla’s (Rhea Perlman) husband Eddie LeBec, who perished after being run over by a zamboni. Additional credits included the Diane English comedy Love & War and, most recently, Ray Donovan.

Thomas will, of course, also be remembered for his Christmastime appearances on Late Show with David Letterman.

[drchin]

Walter Becker, a guitarist, bassist and co-founder of the band Steely Dan died Sunday at the age of 67.

Becker's official website confirmed the news without providing information about his cause of death.

Becker missed Steely Dan's Classic East and West concerts earlier this year due to an unspecified health issue.

"Walter's recovering from a procedure and hopefully he'll be fine very soon," Becker's band mate Donald Fagen told Billboard.

Becker and his band gained and maintained popularity with hit singles like “Dirty Work,” “Reelin’ in the Years,” and “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number," among others. The band, which got its start in the early 70s, split in 1981 due to a variety of reasons, including addiction issues, the overdose death of Fagen’s girlfriend Karen Stanley and a wrongful death lawsuit.

After the split, Becker moved to Hawaii and quit drugs, before embarking on a solo career as a record producer. The band eventually got back together in 1993 and released their comeback album in 2000.

Becker and Fagen were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001 and received honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Berklee College of Music.

*with apologies to Frothy, our official necrographer (if that's a word, and if it isn't, it should be)*

[drchin]

from NY Times:

Harry Dean Stanton, the gaunt, hollow-eyed, scene-stealing character actor who broke out of obscurity in his late 50s in two starring movie roles and capped his career with an acclaimed characterization as a corrupt polygamist on the HBO series “Big Love,” died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 91.

His death, at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, was confirmed by his agent, John S. Kelly.

Mr. Stanton spent two decades typecast in Hollywood as cowboys and villains before his unusual talents began to attract notice on the strength of his performances in the movies “Straight Time” (1978); “Alien,” “Wise Blood” and “The Rose” (all 1979); and “Escape From New York” (1981).

In those roles — as a former criminal bored in the law-abiding world, a 22nd-century space traveler, a street preacher pretending to be blind, a devastatingly cruel country-music star and a crazed demolitions expert — his look and his down-home voice were the same, but his characters were distinct and memorable.

Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times in 1978 that Mr. Stanton’s “mysterious gift” was “to be able to make everything he does seem immediately authentic.” The critic Roger Ebert once wrote that Mr. Stanton was one of two character actors (the other was M. Emmet Walsh) whose presence in a movie guaranteed that it could not be “altogether bad.”


Stanton was great pals with actor Jack Nicholson, and they roomed together in a Laurel Canyon house on Skyline Drive in the early 1960s. (Nicholson moved in after sharing a place with screenwriter Robert Towne.) They first appeared together in Monte Hellman’s Ride in the Whirlwind (1966), which Nicholson also wrote, and Stanton always said he learned about “acting natural” from that experience.

from The Hollywood Reporter:

“Harry, I’ve got this part for you. His name is Blind Dick Reilly, and he’s the head of the gang. He’s got a patch over one eye and a derby hat,” Stanton, in a 2008 interview with Esquire, recalled Nicholson pitching him. “Then he says, ‘But I don’t want you to do anything. Let the wardrobe play the character.’ Which meant, just play yourself. That became my whole approach.”

[amtronic]

Hugh Hefner age 91
LOS ANGELES - Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, who helped usher in the 1960s sexual revolution with his groundbreaking men’s magazine and built a business empire around his libertine lifestyle, died on Wednesday at the age of 91, Playboy Enterprises said. Hefner, once called the “prophet of pop hedonism” by Time magazine, peacefully passed away at his home, Playboy Enterprises said in a statement.

[MadamMeow]

Hef's neighbor/his mansion owner must be happy.

I read he's going to join the two properties.

If he lives next door he should just museum or b&b the place or something.

[drchin]

Monty Hall, the genial host and co-creator of “Let’s Make a Deal,” the game show on which contestants in outlandish costumes shriek and leap at the chance to see if they will win the big prize or the booby prize behind doorNo. 3, died at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Saturday. He was 96.

A daughter, Joanna Gleason, confirmed his death. She said the cause was heart failure.

“Let’s Make a Deal” had its premiere in late 1963 and, with some interruptions, has been a television phenomenon ever since.

When Mr. Hall first roamed among the audience members who filled the “trading floor” in an NBC studio in Burbank, Calif., there was nothing zany about them.

“They came to the show in the first week in suits and dresses,” Mr. Hall told The Los Angeles Times in 2013.

Within weeks, however, things had changed.

By one account, the turning point came when a woman in the audience, vying for Mr. Hall’s attention with hopes of being chosen as a contestant, wore a bizarre-looking hat.

Mr. Hall recalled it somewhat differently in 2013: The game changer, he said, was a woman carrying a sign that said, “Roses are red, violets are blue, I came here to deal with you.”

Whatever it was that opened the floodgates, would-be deal makers were soon showing up wearing live-bird hats, Tom Sawyer costumes or boxes resembling refrigerators. Some simply waved signs pleading, “Pick Me.”

“Let’s Make a Deal” became such a pop-culture phenomenon that it gave birth to a well-known brain-twister in probability, called “the Monty Hall Problem.” This thought experiment involves three doors, two goats and a coveted prize and leads to a counterintuitive solution.

Mr. Hall had his proud moments as well. In 1973 he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1988, Mr. Hall, who was born in Canada, was named to the Order of Canada by that country’s government in recognition of the millions he had raised for a host of charities. In 2013 he was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Daytime Emmys.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Aug. 25, 1921, Monte Halparin (he later changed the spelling of his first name and took the stage name Hall) was one of two sons of Maurice Halparin, a butcher, and the former Rose Rusen, a teacher.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and zoology from the University of Manitoba. But, smitten by applause while appearing in college musicals, he moved to Toronto and began working as an actor and singer. In 1955 he moved again, this time to New York, where he became a regular on “Monitor,” a mix of comedy, music, sports and news on NBC Radio.

Five years later, Mr. Hall moved to Hollywood to host “Video Village,” a CBS TV show on which contestants played the role of “tokens” on a human-size game board. He teamed with the writer and producer Stefan Hatos to create “Let’s Make a Deal” in 1963.

Mr. Hall is survived by a show-business family: two daughters, Joanna Gleason, a Tony Award-winning actress, and Sharon Hall, a television executive; a son, Richard, a producer who won an Emmy for “The Amazing Race”; a brother, Robert Hall, a lawyer; and five grandchildren. His wife of almost 70 years, the former Marilyn Plottel, an Emmy Award-winning television producer, died in June.

[amtronic]

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

I do admit that for quite a while, I would watch LMAD with the sound turned off and do my own voiceover:

"Ms Doofus, would you trade anal sex for whats behind door number one??"

"Mrs DelRay, please please try and control your excitement and stop peeing on me!"

"Mrs Kelly, will you trade this ten dollar bill I have for me to motorboat those big titties of yours? You will? Lets Make A Deal!!"



.

[MadamMeow]

Content, Pictures  and Download links visible to registered users only. 

REGISTER NOW to access all areas that are invisible to non-members.

rep, rep, rep, rep

[amtronic]

Tom Petty



Tom Petty, the famed and beloved rocker behind hits like “American Girl” and “Free Fallin,” has died following a cardiac arrest, CBS News confirms. He was 66.
Petty was reportedly found unconscious in his Malibu home and rushed to the UCLA Santa Monica Hospital on Sunday night. He was put on life support, but after it was determined that he had no brain activity, the decision was made on Monday to pull life support.
God rest your soul, Florida boy.


.