The RIP Thread

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Legendary NFL coach and broadcaster John Madden has died at age 85
By David Close and Steve Almasy, CNN



(CNN)Hall of Famer John Madden, whose Oakland Raiders teams never had a losing season and a beloved football analyst for three decades, has died, the NFL said Tuesday night.

Madden, 85, passed away unexpectedly in the morning, according to the league.
"On behalf of the entire NFL family, we extend our condolences to (wife) Virginia, (son) Mike, (Son) Joe and their families," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "We all know him as the Hall of Fame coach of the Oakland Raiders and broadcaster who worked for every major network, but more than anything, he was a devoted husband, father and grandfather.

"Nobody loved football more than Coach. He was football. He was an incredible sounding board to me and so many others. There will never be another John Madden, and we will forever be indebted to him for all he did to make football and the NFL what it is today."

During his 10 seasons coaching the Raiders, Madden's teams never had a losing record and he led Oakland to the playoffs eight times. In January 1977, the Raiders won Super Bowl XI, beating the Minnesota Vikings 32-14 under Madden's guidance.

In a statement, the Raiders said, "Few individuals meant as much to the growth and popularity of professional football as Coach Madden, whose impact on the game both on and off the field was immeasurable."

He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2006.
"I have never worked a day in my life. I went from player to coach to a broadcaster and I am the luckiest guy in the world," he said at his induction.

Madden provided commentary for NFL games for 30 seasons for FOX, CBS, ABC and NBC. He won 16 Emmys as Outstanding Sports Personality/Sport Event Analyst.

Madden was beloved for his ebullient broadcasting style, and punctuated his analysis with a "Boom!" or "Wham!" or "Doink!"

Madden also had a love for using a Telestrator, a video marker that enables a person to draw over television images, and helped explain the game to hardcore and casual fans across America.
He gave awards out such as the All-Madden Team to hard-working players and turkey legs to the most valuable players of games he helped broadcast on Thanksgiving.

His greatest food gift might have been in using his TV pulpit to exclaim his fondness of a dish called turducken -- deboned turkey, duck and chicken with some dressing.

"When I think of a person of sports who is worthy of the term, 'larger than life,' I have always thought of John. And I always will," Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said.

His name is attached to one of the best-selling sports video game series -- Madden NFL -- which began in 1988 as John Madden Football.

"Today we lost a hero," game maker EA Sports said in a statement. "His knowledge of the game was second only to his love for it and his appreciation for everyone that ever stepped on the gridiron."

Madden's exuberant and folksy personality also made him popular as a pitchman, promoting Miller Lite, Ace Hardware and a antifungus treatment he memorably described as "Tough actin' Tinactin."

Playing career ended with injury

According to the Hall of Fame, Madden had standout collegiate career at Cal Poly, San Louis Obispo, and was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the 21st round of the 1958 NFL Draft. But he never played a down in the NFL after a knee injury in training camp.

Madden began to study game film with quarterback Norm Van Brocklin, and grew to enjoy analyzing -- and coaching.
"Playing is the best thing. Coaching is the next-best thing," Madden once told NFL Films.

Madden coached first at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, California, as an assistant in 1960. Two years later he was elevated to head coach and in 1964 moved to San Diego State where he was defensive coordinator for three years.
He joined the Raiders, who were in the American Football League, before the 1967 season as a linebackers coach. In 1969, Al Davis made Madden, just 32, head coach.

The Raiders joined the NFL for the 1970 season when the 10 AFL teams officially folded into the league.

"John Madden really was the epitome of the NFL and brought the NFL into everyone's home at the moment it was exploding in our consciousness," CNN sports analyst and USA Today columnist Christine Brennan told CNN's Jim Acosta.
Brennan said she knew Madden to be kind, gentle, smart and "a lovely human being."

At his Hall of Fame induction, Madden spoke about his best football moment.
"I just want to say in closing that it's been a great ride," he said. "I want to thank everyone who has been along for any part of it.

"Speaking of great rides, I was lucky enough to be carried off the field after we won Super Bowl XI. I was told it took like five or six guys to lift me up, then they dropped me. But that's OK, because that was me and that was them. They aren't going to carry me off. You carry him off for a while, boom! You dump him on the ground. But it was the happiest moment of my life."

CNN's Kevin Dotson contributed to this report.

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Betty White, Golden Girl of TV Comedy, Dies at 99
Mike Barnes 54 mins ago


Amanda Edwards/WireImage

Betty White, the quick-witted comedienne whose ribald humor as showcased on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Golden Girls and Hot in Cleveland made her America’s ageless darling, has died. She was 99.

The beloved five-time Emmy Award winner and animal advocate, whose career reached another level after she became an octogenarian, died overnight Thursday into Friday at her Brentwood home, her agent and close friend Jeff Witjas told The Washington Post.

“Even though Betty was about to be 100, I thought she would live forever,” Witjas said in a statement to People magazine. “I will miss her terribly and so will the animal world that she loved so much. I don’t think Betty ever feared passing because she always wanted to be with her most beloved husband Allen Ludden. She believed she would be with him again.”

White joined the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore Show for the CBS sitcom’s fourth season in 1973 as Sue Ann Nivens, the blunt, man-lusting star of the WJM-TV show The Happy Homemaker, and she won two straight Emmys for outstanding continuing performance by a supporting actress in a comedy series.

On NBC’s The Golden Girls, which aired for seven seasons, White played the simple-minded Minnesotan Rose Nylund opposite Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan and Estelle Getty. She was nominated for lead comedy series actress in every year from 1986 through 1992, winning the trophy in her first try.

And on TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland, which completed its six-season run in 2015, White was cast in her late 80s as the sharp-tongued Elka Ostrovsky, who takes care of the Victorian home inhabited by L.A. transplants played by Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick. That earned her a supporting actress Emmy nom in 2011.

“Betty White is one of the few people who walks into the room and you know her,” Carl Reiner said on the 2018 PBS special Betty White: First Lady of Television. “You’ve known her all your life. She’s one of those people that are always welcome on any show she’s on.”

Earlier in her career, her snappy banter and dizzy smile made her a popular guest on such game shows as To Tell the Truth, What’s My Line?, Match Game, Password and Liar’s Club — the last two hosted by Ludden. (They met when she was on Password in 1961.)

She also won a Daytime Emmy in 1983 for hosting the game show Just Men!, the first awarded to a female emcee.

White won another Emmy and attracted 12 million viewers for hosting Saturday Night Live in 2010 at age 88 after a fan-based Facebook campaign; starred in a clever Snickers Super Bowl commercial with Abe Vigoda; and netted noms from 2012-14 (giving her a career total of 21) as host of the NBC reality show Off Their Rockers.

In 1988, White was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame and received the Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award in 2010.

The Guinness Book of World Records in 2013 said she held the record for longest TV career for an entertainer (female). “I think the reason for the longevity is that several generations have gotten to know me over the years, so I’ve become sort of part of the family,” she told Larry King in 2010.

Betty Marion White was born on Jan. 17, 1922, in Oak Park, Illinois, the only child of an electrical engineer and a housewife. The family moved to Los Angeles when she was 2, and she graduated from Beverly Hills High School. Her idol was singer-actress Jeanette MacDonald.

“I was in the graduation play from high school and the president of our senior class, and I sang ‘The Merry Widow’ and did a little dance,” White told NPR in a 2014 interview. “I think that’s when the showbiz bug bit me — and they haven’t been able to get rid of me since.”

She landed parts on radio shows and in 1949 accepted disc jockey Al Jarvis’ offer to be his “Girl Friday” on Hollywood on Television, a new variety show he was doing for KLAC-TV. The show was on for 5½ hours a day, six days a week (Sundays off!). When Jarvis departed in 1952, she hosted the show for a couple of years.

Also in 1952, the adorable White co-founded Bandy Productions — she was a rare woman with power in show business in those days — and went on to star as the title character in the syndicated sitcom Life With Elizabeth, shot live from the Music Hall Theater in Beverly Hills. She also hosted The Betty White Show in daytime for NBC (that was only on a half-hour each weekday) and played a newlywed in Date With the Angels, a 1957-58 ABC comedy.

Following The Mary Tyler Moore Show, White starred in another series called The Betty White Show, this one a short-lived sitcom from CBS/MTM Enterprises. She played a TV actress starring in a police series who was directed by her character’s ex-husband (John Hillerman).

In the 1980s, White recurred as Ellen Harper Jackson, the oldest daughter of Thelma (Vicki Lawrence), on Mama’s Family, and showed up as Rose on the series Empty Nest, the short-lived Golden Girls spinoff The Golden Palace and Nurses.

White was a regular on CBS’ Bob, starring Bob Newhart (the actors’ characters would get married on the Hot in Cleveland finale); played the mother of Marie Osmond on the ABC sitcom Maybe This Time in 1995; won an Emmy for playing herself on The John Larroquete Show; and was Alfred Molina’s mom on the 1999-2001 CBS sitcom Ladies Man.

She played Catherine Piper, a childhood friend and blackmailer of William Shatner’s Denny Crain, on The Practice and Boston Legal and portrayed the rude Bea Sigurdson on That ’70s Show. Other notable guest-starring appearances came on St. Elsewhere; Suddenly Susan; Yes, Dear; My Name Is Earl; 30 Rock; Community; and The Middle.

In films, she played a senator from Kansas in Otto Preminger’s Advise & Consent (1962), was the foul-mouthed Delores Bickerman in Lake Placid (1999) and played Ryan Reynolds’ outlandish grandmother in The Proposal (2009). She also appeared in the comedies The Story of Us (1999), Bringing Down the House (2003) and You Again (2010).

She turned down the role of Helen Hunt’s mother in As Good as It Gets (1997) because she objected to a scene in which a dog is thrown down a rubbish chute.

“Of course it lands on some cushions and it’s fine, but I didn’t want to set that example, because you never know what nuts or kids will see it and think I can do that,” she said on The Tonight Show. “The director said, ‘The dog’s fine, the dog’s fine!’ But I said, ‘I just can’t do that.’ ”

White worked on many charitable projections involving animal disease research. She served for three years as the president of the Morris Animal Foundation and served on the board of trustees for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn.

She was married to Ludden, her third husband, from 1963 until his death from cancer in 1981.

Duane Byrge contributed to this report.

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[Vodkaman]

Damn Jesus took the Betty White news hard he didn't even update the main page today

[ThatHaole]

The Aristocrats!

[Vodkaman]

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Damn that was a very detailed joke

[Stantz]

Taylor Hawkins

What the fuck

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

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Yeah and he was only 50.

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Comedian Gilbert Gottfried Has Died After A Long Illness, His Family Said
Clarissa-Jan Lim
Tue, April 12, 2022, 1:28 PM


Actor and comedian Gilbert Gottfried has died after a "long illness," his family said on Tuesday. He was 67.

"We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our beloved Gilbert Gottfried after a long illness," a statement from his family said. "In addition to being the most iconic voice in comedy, Gilbert was a wonderful husband, brother, friend and father to his two young children. Although today is a sad day for all of us, please keep laughing as loud as possible in Gilbert's honor."



Gottfried was known for his outrageous voice acting and fearlessly crude humor, which earned him the reputation as a comedian's comedian. He voiced the parrot Iago in Aladdin and was blacklisted from the Emmys after joking about masturbation in his monologue at the 1991 awards show.

Gottfried also voiced the duck mascot of the insurance company Aflac from 2000 until 2011, when he was fired after making a series of jokes on Twitter about the deadly tsunami in Japan, where Aflac did most of its business.

He also notoriously joked about 9/11 just three weeks after the attacks, at a Hugh Hefner roast in New York City. Upon realizing that he had lost the crowd, Gottfried then gave his take on the infamous joke known as "the Aristocrats," which won the audience back and was later turned into a documentary.

"I love to go where it’s a dark area,” he told the New York Times in 2013. “You never know what people will choose to be offended by.”

Gottfried often directed his humor at himself, too. In an interview with Vulture in 2019, he said a popular comedy club in New York City called the Improv would put him onstage "to clear the audience out at the end of the night." He also said his anxiety about performing in front of a crowd had grown worse over the years.

Gottfried appeared in a number of TV shows, including Hollywood Squares, Celebrity Paranormal Project, and Celebrity Wife Swap, in which his wife Dara Gottfried swapped places with Alan Thicke's wife, Tanya Callau.

In January, after his close friend and fellow comedian Bob Saget died suddenly, Gottfried expressed his disbelief in an interview with Good Morning America.

"I ... thought it was a sick joke and I was waiting for the punch line and then it didn't come," he said. "I still feel right now like I'm waiting for the punch line to happen, that it was all a big joke, it was all a hoax."

Gottfried is survived by his wife — whom he met at a Grammys party — and his two children.

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Famed Manga Artist Fujiko A. Fujio A Dies At 88
Brian Ashcraft
8 April 2022



Fujiko Fujio Pen name of manga artists Hiroshi Fujimoto and Motoo Abiko

Fujiko A. Fujio (real name Motoo Abiko) in a file photo from 2008.

This week, Japan lost a legend. Nikkei Asia reports that famed manga creator Fujiko A. Fujio died on Thursday morning at his home in Tokyo’s Kawasaki. He was 88.

Fujiko A. Fujio, whose real name was Motoo Abiko, was part of a manga artist duo with Hiroshi Fujimoto, aka Fujiko F. Fujio. Together they were known as Fujiko Fujio, and were the manga world’s equivalent of Lennon–McCartney. Childhood friends, the two formed a collaborative partnership in 1951 and went on to create some of Japan’s most iconic manga, which were later adapted into beloved anime that are still watched today. Fujiko F. Fujio, who passed away in 1996, is credited with being the driving force behind Doraemon, which is often referred to as the Mickey Mouse of Japan. Their creative partnership was dissolved in 1987.

In 2008, the Japanese government awarded Fujiko A. Fujio with the Order of the Rising Sun, which is one of the country’s highest honors.

Fujiko A. Fujio created numerous beloved manga, including Ninja Hattori-kun and The Laughing Salesman. Ninja Hattori-kun, which follows the adventures of a boy who befriends a ninja kid, debuted as a manga in 1964 and as an anime in 1981. As Nikkei Asia notes, The Laughing Salesman is about a salesman who aims to “fill the emptiness in people’s souls,” but his offers typically come at a price to those who don’t follow his instructions exactly. The Laughing Salesman is much darker than Fujiko F. Fujio’s kid-friendly Doraemon, and shows how the duo’s artistic temperaments differed.

Even in his later years, Fujiko A. Fujio remained active. His final serialized manga, Parman no Jounetsu-teki na Hibi (Parman’s Intense Daily Life), was a memoir that launched in 2007 and went on hiatus in 2015.

Fujiko A. Fujio was one of Japan’s truly great manga creators. May he rest in peace.

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[amtronic]

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I do swear that a long time ago, I saw a grainy flick of Betty pulling a train.
Anybody else ever see or hear of that?? She was a fine piece of ass back in her day.



~!