The RIP Thread

[el_victorino]

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I imagine the same sort of thought went through a lot of heads after John and George died, but Ringo still keeps on ticking.

[Josephus]

Andy Williams, whose corn-fed good looks, easygoing charm and smooth rendition of "Moon River" propelled him to the heights of music stardom in the early '60s, died Tuesday at his home in Branson, Mo., following a battle with bladder cancer, his family announced.

He was 84, and 2012 had marked his 75th year in showbiz. Williams is survived by his wife Debbie and his three children, Robert, Noelle and Christian.

With 17 gold and three platinum records to his name, Williams enjoyed his golden years playing golf and dividing his time between La Quinta, Calif., and Branson, where he appeared at his Andy Williams Moon River Theater since 1992.

It was on the stage of that theater, in November 2011, Williams announced he had bladder cancer. At the time, he assured fans the disease was no longer a death sentence and that he had every intention of being a survivor.

Born in Wall Lake, Iowa, the son of a railroad worker, Howard Andrew WIlliams sang in his family's church choir with older siblings Bob, Dick and Don. In the late '30s, the boys built up a name for themselves regionally on Midwestern radio stations as the Williams Brothers quartet.

After the war, in 1947, they joined entertainer Kay Thompson in her innovative and sophisticated nightclub act. In his 2009 memoir Moon River and Me, Williams admitted he had a long affair with Thompson, who had been a legendary vocal coach at MGM (she taught Judy Garland and Lena Horne to sing for the screen) and was 18 years the senior of her handsome young protégé.

In 1952, when the brothers' act broke up, Andy launched his solo career, only to find himself broke and without bookings. Giving himself one last shot, he wisely switched his repertoire from clever Noël Coward ditties to the latest pop hits, and his New York club appearances soon included singing spots on the Tonight show (which was in Manhattan at the time), then regular TV shots and a Columbia Records contract.

By the early '60s he had an easy-listening hit under his belt, "Can't Get Used to Losing You," though it was his romantic take on the Best Song Oscar winner from 1961's Breakfast at Tiffany's, "Moon River," that landed him on the map – and kept him there.

The smash hit recording led to NBC's 1962 launch of The Andy Williams Show, which remained on the air until 1971 and then returned as an annual Christmas special. It was on the variety weekly program in 1963 that Williams introduced to America a group of young singing siblings from Utah, The Osmond Brothers.

Despite his own clean-cut good looks – the Williams signature look was a turtleneck under a brightly colored pullover sweater – scandal did touch Williams's life. In the mid-1970s, his ex-wife, French dancer Claudine Longet, went on trial in Aspen for the fatal shooting of her lover, international skiing star Vladimir ("Spider") Sabich.

In the end, Longet, who claimed the shooting was an accident, was found guilty of misdemeanor criminal negligence and received only a 30-day sentence, which she served on and off at her convenience. In his 2009 memoir, Williams, who during the trial had accompanied his ex-wife to the courtroom on a daily basis, continued to defend her innocence.

Longet and Williams were married from 1961 to 1975 and had three children together: Noelle, Christian, and Robert. They survive him, as does his second wife (since 1991), Debbie Williams.

[josehl]

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I'll forever remember him for being Nelson Muntz's favorite artist.

[MrGoutHimself]

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He was my favorite Bee Gee.

[Eccles]

R.I.P. Herbert Lom, actor of The Pink Panther, The Ladykillers, and War And Peace

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[smeegs]

First adult film star Sylvia Kristel dies at 60



Sylvia Kristel, arguably the first adult film star, has died at the age of 60 after suffering a long battle with cancer.

"She died during the night during her sleep," her agent told the AFP. She was admitted to a hospital in July after suffering a stroke, though she was first diagnosed with throat and lung cancer roughly ten years ago.

The Dutch actress, born in Utrecht, Holland, made waves around the world as the star of 1974 erotic French film "Emmanuelle." In the controversial film she played the woman after which it was named -- a young model Emmanuelle, married to a much older man. The plot revolves around the couple as they move to Bangkok. Kristel's character then engages in a number of extramarital affairs as her husband doesn't seem to mind.

The film garnered a major following, played for 11 years in a theater on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, and remains one of the most successful French films of all time. "Emmanuelle" also inspired a number of sequels in which Kristel also starred.

Kristel's performance in the "soft core" film even drew critical praise from Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert. He wrote in 1975: What makes the film work is the performance of Sylvia Kristel... [who] projects a certain vulnerability that makes several of the scenes work... The performers in most skin flicks seem so impervious to ordinary mortal failings, so blase in the face of the most outrageous sexual invention, that finally they just become cartoon characters. Kristel actually seems to be present in the film, and as absorbed in its revelations as we are. [via the BBC]

Kristel appeared in nearly 60 titles over the years, including television movies. She admitted to drug and alcohol addiction and experienced her share of bad relationships, later saying if she had it to do over again, she would have never entered those relationships -- with the exception of early boyfriend, Belgian author Hugo Claus.

Having won a few notable beauty pageants by the time she was 21, Claus is the one who initially encouraged Kristel to become an actress. The couple had a son, Arthur, in 1975.

Somewhat ironically, Kristel was educated in a convent and had a strict, religious upbringing -- something she fled from as a teenager when she moved to Amsterdam.

A private funeral will be held for Kristel, according to her agent.

[Eccles]

Larry Hagman, Dallas' JR Ewing, dies aged 81
Actor who found fame as the machiavellian Texan oilman in US soap dies in Dallas hospital after battle against throat cancer

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[The Godfather]

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[Bam-Bam]

Jazz great Dave Brubeck dies at 91.

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[The Godfather]

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