The RIP Thread

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Treat Williams' Death in Motorcycle Crash Is 'Still an Active Investigation': Police
Story by Dory Jackson, Stephanie Wenger, Eric Francis • 3h ago


After the former 'Everwood' star died at age 71 following a motorcycle accident in Vermont on Monday, police are providing new details about the crash


Rachel Luna/Getty © Provided by People

Authorities are providing new details surrounding Treat Williams' untimely death.

Williams died on Monday following his involvement in a motorcycle accident on Route 30 by Long Trail Auto near Dorset, Vermont. He was 71.

Jacob Gribble, the fire chief for Dorset, Vermont, previously told PEOPLE the crash happened around 5 p.m. He stated that investigators believed a driver of a car was turning and didn’t see Williams' motorcycle before the two collided.

The Vermont State Police later identified Williams as the motorcyclist and provided additional details from the crash in a press release on Monday night. Their initial investigation indicated that a 2008 Honda Element was turning left into a parking lot and "turned into the path of a northbound 1986 Honda VT700c motorcycle operated by Williams."

The former Everwood actor — who was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident — was "unable to avoid a collision and was thrown from his motorcycle." He sustained "critical injuries" and was airlifted to a hospital in Albany, New York, where he was pronounced dead.

The driver of the vehicle was checked at the scene for minor injuries and not transported to the hospital.

Officials returned to the scene on Tuesday to continue the investigation. Speaking to reporters on site, Vermont State Police Lt. Steven Coote, the Station Commander of the Shaftsbury Barracks, emphasized that while the preliminary investigation showed the southbound car crossed into the path of the northbound motorcycle, this was not the same thing as saying the driver of the car was at fault.

"There hasn’t been a formal determination yet. We are still analyzing some of the data collected by investigators to determine the at-fault operator," Coote said.

Coote noted that the driver of the car was screened at the scene and determined not to be impaired. Williams was not screened due to his injuries. However, since he died later in the evening at the hospital in Albany, there are components of the investigation that will have to wait for the New York State Medical Examiner.

"This is still an active investigation. We are less than 24 hours into the investigation so we are still working through a lot of things with our partners,” Coote said, adding that several members of the Vermont State Police Crash Reconstruction Team were using "tools and technologies to gather more information about the crash," including a drone flight, measurements and photos.

Per Coote, historical data on Route 30 “doesn’t suggest this is a significant high-crash area."

"It’s not what you would call a dangerous intersection," Coote said, adding that any final determination of fault will be made in consultation with the Bennington County State’s Attorney’s Office, who would also weigh in on whether any possible criminal charges might be warranted in connection with the fatal accident.

Asked when new information might be available, the lieutenant replied, "It’s tough to determine an exact time frame. I hope to have more answers soon."

Williams's longtime agent Barry McPherson confirmed his tragic death in a statement shared with PEOPLE on Monday.

"He was killed this afternoon," McPherson said. "I'm just devastated. He was the nicest guy. He was so talented."

"He was an actor's actor. Filmmakers loved him. He's been the heart of Hollywood since the late 1970s," he added. "He was really proud of his performance this year. He's been so happy with the work that I got him. He's had a balanced career."

"Treat was a wonderful man and a brilliant actor," Smith, who played Williams' son on Everwood for four seasons from 2002-2006, told PEOPLE in part. "Above all, he loved his family so much. I’m very grateful for the time I got to spend as part of his extended tv family. He made an indelible impression on me during my most formative years. I will always cherish my time with Treat and think fondly of his stories, his laugh and his passion for adventure."

"Working with and being around Treat was such a special thing that I can’t explain. It was like lightning in a bottle," Bennett added, in part. "All he ever wanted to do was make you laugh and entertain you. He was the definition of a showman and brought so much joy to all of us by doing what he loved doing."

Williams is survived by his wife, actress Pam Van Sant, and their two children, Gill and Ellie.

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Walter McBride/Getty Images Treat Williams © Provided by People

I will always remember him from The Phantom, Everwood TV series, and The Substitute series.

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Julian Sands, 65, actor who went missing in San Gabriel Mountains, found dead
By Alexandra Del Rosario Staff Writer
June 27, 2023 Updated 3:36 PM PT


Willy Sanjuan / Invision / Associated Press


British actor Julian Sands, known for films such as “A Room With a View” and “Warlock,” has died after going missing in California’s San Gabriel Mountains. He was 65.

Remains found Saturday on Mt. Baldy are those of Sands, the San Bernardino County coroner’s office confirmed Tuesday. The cause of death is pending further test results.

In a statement shared with the Los Angeles Times, Sands’ manager, Sarah Jackson, said the actor “was a great friend and client.”

“He chose interesting projects that mattered to him and was adored by everyone who worked with him,” Jackson said. “He was a passionate climber, and we draw [consolation] from knowing that he passed in a place he loved, doing what he loved. We are filled with the most beautiful memories.”

The search for Sands concluded Saturday, more than five months after he was reported missing in the Mt. Baldy area on Jan. 13. Hikers discovered Sands’ body Saturday morning and notified authorities, according to a news release. The body was transported from the wilderness to the county coroner’s office for formal identification.

Sands’ death was announced less than a week after the Sheriff’s Department resumed its search. In the search’s first months, storms blanketed Mt. Baldy — considered one of the most dangerous mountains in the U.S. — with snow, hindering crew efforts.

Since launching its search in January, the Sheriff’s Department completed eight aerial and ground searches.

Sands was an avid mountaineer. In 2020, he told the Guardian he was happiest when “close to a mountain summit on a glorious cold morning.” He also noted a close brush with death in the early 1990s, when he and three other hikers were caught in “an atrocious storm above 20,000 [feet]” while trekking in the Andes Mountains.

“Mountain climbing and film making are very connected,” Sands told the Yorkshire Post in a 2013 article. “There’s always another mountain. And ultimately the point of climbing a mountain is that the mountain is within. And I think that’s true, too, of the acting experience.”

Sands’ career included roles in films and on television. After taking on minor parts in several movies in the early 1980s, the actor gained popularity with James Ivory’s romance “A Room With a View” in 1985. He went on to appear in dozens of films and several series, including “24” and “Banshee.”

When his career began taking off, Sands told The Times in 1987, “There is such an element of luck in this business.”

Born Jan. 4, 1958, in the United Kingdom, Sands attended Lord Wandsworth College and earned his first professional acting credit in an episode of “Play for Today” in 1982, according to online movie database IMDb. Roles in the film “Privates on Parade” and the Anthony Hopkins-led miniseries “A Married Man” followed.

In 1984, he starred alongside Rob Lowe in the low-budget “Oxford Blues,” a film Sands said he regrets and dubbed “the original ‘B’ movie.” In the same year, he married journalist Sarah Sands (née Harvey), with whom he shares son Henry. They divorced in 1987.

Sands wooed audiences in 1985’s “A Room With a View,” in which he starred alongside Maggie Smith, Denholm Elliott and Helena Bonham Carter. Set in the early 20th century, the period drama introduced Sands as a new Hollywood love interest.

Sands graced the screen as the free-spirited, love-struck George Emerson. In its review, The Times noted, “Sands conveys George’s headlong passion for life with intelligence and a handsomeness that seems somehow to refract light with a special intensity.”

Among his memorable scenes was a romantic kiss with Bonham Carter’s Lucy in a picturesque poppy field in Italy.

Sands received fan letters about that moment and reveled in the film’s commercial and critical success.

“It seems to suggest that a lot of people have been yearning to see a little romance on the screen,” he told The Times in 1987. “In recent years filmmakers seem to have been embarrassed by romance and steered well clear of it. Maybe ‘A Room With a View’ will change that slightly.”

What the movie did change was Sands’ show-business standing. Demand increased. The actor booked the key role of Percy Bysshe Shelley in Ken Russell’s “Gothic.” He described working on the film as “being in the midst of a fireworks display.”

As the years went on, Sands appeared alongside even more Hollywood stars — Jodie Foster and Isabella Rossellini in “Siesta,” and Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper in “Vibes.” He also moved from London to New York.

He had the title role in Steve Miner‘s “Warlock.” The 1989 horror film allowed Sands to expand his talents beyond the small roles that defined his early career and sink his teeth into darker material.

“I am the prince of malevolence,” he said in 1991. “[Warlock’s] so totally bad there is something attractive and pure about his evil. He is dedicated in his desire to create horror.”

In 1990, he remarried. He and journalist Evgenia Citkowitz share two daughters, Natalya and Imogen Sands.

The ’90s proved to be another fruitful decade for the actor, with roles in films including “Arachnophobia” and “Leaving Las Vegas.” Sands also tried his hand at more experimental, controversial roles.

In David Cronenberg‘s 1991 film adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ “Naked Lunch,” Sands portrayed a young Swiss man who was really a giant shape-shifting centipede.

For Jennifer Lynch‘s critically panned “Boxing Helena,” Sands played a disturbed surgeon who takes extreme, unethical measures to earn a woman’s affection.

“I was looking for something exotic, things that took me out of myself,” he told the Guardian in 2018. “I think I found myself a little boring.”

When it came to television, Sands had roles in series including “24,” “The Blacklist,” “Banshee” and “Dexter.” Additional TV credits include “The L Word,” “Crossbones,” “Jackie Chan Adventures” and “Gotham.”

Reflecting on the minor roles that helped him break through (including a part in Roland Joffé’s Oscar-nominated “The Killing Fields”), Sands told The Times in 1987 that he wasn’t expecting much to come of them.

“The role was so tiny I’m surprised that people even remember me,” he said. “But they seem to, which is gratifying.”

Sands is survived by wife Evgenia, their two daughters, Natalya and Imogen; son Henry Sands; and four brothers.

No plans for a memorial have been revealed.

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Phil McCarten / Associated Press

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Alan Arkin, Oscar Winner for ‘Little Miss Sunshine,’ Dies at 89
By Carmel Dagan, J. Kim Murphy
Jun 30, 2023 6:50am PT


Emma McIntyre/Getty

Alan Arkin, an Oscar-winning actor for “Little Miss Sunshine” with a body of work that spans seven decades of stage and screen acting, died June 29 at his home in Carlsbad, Calif, Variety has confirmed. He was 89.

Arkin’s sons Adam, Matthew and Anthony said in a joint statement, “Our father was a uniquely talented force of nature, both as an artist and a man. A loving husband, father, grand and great grandfather, he was adored and will be deeply missed.”

Arkin, who was known for projecting a characteristically dry wit but could play tragedy with equal efficacy, won his Oscar for his supporting performance in the indie comedy “Little Miss Sunshine” in 2007; he scored an encore nomination for his punchy and profane turn in Ben Affleck’s best picture winner “Argo.” Arkin picked up two earlier nominations in his film career, for “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” in 1967 and for “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter” in 1969.

More recently, Arkin received back-to-back Primetime Emmy Award nominations in outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for his performance in the Netflix series “The Kominsky Method,” in which he starred alongside Michael Douglas. Arkin received four additional Emmy nominations (across other categories) earlier in his career.

Beyond his screen career, Arkin began in entertainment as a stage performer, serving as an early member of the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago before making his Broadway debut in “From the Second City” in 1961. Two years later, he scored a Tony Award for starring in Joseph Stein’s comedy “Enter Laughing.”

In “Argo” he played Lester Siegel, the Hollywood veteran who was recruited to produce a fictional sci-fi film whose production would provide cover for the rescue of American hostages in Iran. Siegel, wrote Pete Hammond in his review, even “goes to the extreme of announcing the project in a Variety ad and article. ‘If I am going to be making a fake movie, I want to have a fake hit,’ says Lester, played to amusing perfection by Arkin.”

In “Little Miss Sunshine,” Arkin played the foul-mouthed, heroin-snorting grandfather Edwin. The San Francisco Chronicle said: “The cast is so perfect that it’s impossible to imagine anyone else in the roles. Arkin’s spontaneity gives the impression that he’s improvising.”

Abigail Breslin played Arkin’s granddaughter, whose desire to compete in a talent contest take the whole family on a road trip in “Little Miss Sunshine”

“Alan Arkin was one of the most kindest gentlest and hilarious actors I ever worked with,” Breslin said. “We may not have been related in real life but he will always be Grandpa in my heart. I send my deepest sympathies this his wife Suzanne and his family.”

Arkin was an actor whose gifts were recognized early. After his Tony in 1963, he earned his first Emmy nomination, for the “ABC Stage 67” episode “The Love Song of Barney Kempinski,” in 1967, the same year he earned his first Oscar nomination. Arkin never really left television despite the success of his film career. His next Emmy nomination came in 1987 for the Holocaust-themed CBS telepic “Escape From Sobibor”; the third was in 1997 for a guest appearance on “Chicago Hope” and another in 2003 for telepic “The Pentagon Papers.”

Remarkably, Arkin earned his first Oscar nomination for his first credited feature performance. Norman Jewison’s “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming” was a Cold War comedy in which a Soviet sub runs aground on a New England island; Arkin played the leader of the Russian party set to scout out the area. Hilarity ensues as Russians and Americans make wild encounters. The New York Times noted that it was Arkin’s debut film and said he gave “a particularly wonderful performance.”

Not all the critics were impressed with his performance in the thriller “Wait Until Dark,” in which he played a psycho terrorizing a blind Audrey Hepburn, but the role increased his profile in Hollywood and has maintained a strong reputation to this day; next he played Inspector Clouseau in a movie of that name, with Peter Sellers nowhere in sight.

Then in 1969 he earned his second Oscar nomination with Carson McCullers adaptation “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” In a review that was otherwise critical of the film, the New York Times said Arkin’s performance as the deaf-mute Singer is “extraordinary, deep and sound. Walking, with his hat jammed flat on his head, among the obese, the mad, the infirm, characters with one leg, broken hip, scarred mouth, failing life, he somehow manages to convey every dimension of his character, especially intelligence.”

He played a Puerto-Rican father in the comedy “Popi,” Yossarian in Mike Nichols’ adaptation of “Catch-22” and the title character in Neil Simon’s adaptation of his own play “Last of the Red Hot Lovers.” Seeking a different kind of experience, he appeared as a Puerto-Rican police detective alongside James Caan in Richard Rush’s crime drama “Freebie and the Bean.”

In 1976, Arkin starred as Sigmund Freud in the Herbert Ross-directed Sherlock Holmes riff “The Seven-Per-Cent Solution” with a top-flight cast that included Robert Duvall, Laurence Olivier and Vanessa Redgrave.

Arkin directed his first film in 1971, helming the satire “Little Murders” with Jules Feiffer adapting his own play and Elliot Gould starring. He returned to the director’s chair for the somewhat more accessible 1977 comedy “Fire Sale,” with Arkin and Rob Reiner starring. He also helmed some episodic television and a TV movie.

He closed out the 70’s with one of that decade’s funniest film comedies: “The In-Laws,” starring opposite Peter Falk. Arkin was also the executive producer. The New York Times’ Janet Maslin wrote: “I was laughing so hard at ‘The In-Laws,’ a wonderful new comedy of errors… that after a while I was crying. Then I was wiping my eyes. Then I forgot to take any more notes.” As for Arkin and Falk, Maslin said, “It is theirs, and not their children’s, match that has been made in heaven.”

The early 1980s were a fallow period for Arkin. But he was the best thing in 1985 Mordecai Richler adaptation “Joshua Then and Now.” The New York Times lauded the “hilarious, scene-stealing performance by Alan Arkin as the hero’s fast-talking father.” He then reunited with Peter Falk for the John Cassavetes-directed comedy “Big Trouble.”

Though he did not play one of the central characters in Tim Burton’s 1990 film “Edward Scissorhands,” Arkin is still remembered for his performance as Winona Ryder’s father that Rolling Stone characterized as “marvelously wry.”

In the early ’90s he appeared in the epic “Havana,” starring Robert Redford, and played the old codger who dreamed up the device that enables the hero to become “The Rocketeer.” Arkin was part of the starry cast populating the screen adaptation of David Mamet’s “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

In the late ’90s the actor did some fine, interesting, varied work. Arkin played the psychiatrist of the professional killer played by John Cusack in “Grosse Pointe Blank” (the New York Times said, “Alan Arkin is an enormous treat as Martin’s psychiatrist, who can’t conceal his problem of being afraid of his homicidal patient”). He was the dignified diplomat at the center of Bruno Barreto’s Brazilian kidnap drama “Four Days in September,” the cop on the trail of the genetically imperfect Ethan Hawke in “Gattaca,” the paterfamilias always moving his family around to avoid paying rent in “Slums of Beverly Hills.”

In Jill Sprecher’s indie film “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing” (2001), Arkin had a particularly excellent scene opposite Matthew McConaughey. In 2007, the same year he appeared in “Little Miss Sunshine,” Arkin played a senator without political courage in the film “Rendition.”

The next year he appeared in “Sunshine Cleaning,” a sort-of black comedy about a pair of sisters who clean up crime scenes. Also in 2008, he played the Chief in the film adaptation of “Get Smart” that starred Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway. The next year, still continuing to show his range as an actor, Arkin appeared with Robin Wright Penn in Rebecca Miller’s seriocomic “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” a small but ambitious film in which, the New York Times said, “Together Ms. Penn and Mr. Arkin create a portrait of a marriage in which you sense the intertwining crosscurrents of devotion, boredom, anger and gratitude.”

In 2012, the same year he appeared in “Argo,” Arkin starred along with Al Pacino and Christopher Walken in “Stand Up Guys,” about a trio of old mobsters who get the gang back together for one last hurrah.

As for television, Arkin was among the many actors who did some time on “Sesame Street” in the early 1970s. He tried series television with the brief 1987 ABC sitcom “Harry” (in which he starred with then-wife Barbara Dana, among others) and more successfully in the new century with Sidney Lumet’s well-written, well-acted courthouse drama “100 Centre Street.” Reviewing the latter, the New York Times lauded “Alan Arkin’s superbly real, understated portrayal of Joe Rifkind, a thoughtful judge so prone to giving criminals every chance at redemption that his nickname is Let-’em-Go Joe.”

He appeared in a number of TV movies over the years, including the 1978 telepic “The Defection of Simas Kudirka” and, much later, “And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself,” in which he played a world-weary mercenary.

Even after his film career had launched, Arkin occasionally guested on series, doing an arc on “St. Elsewhere” in 1983 as the husband of a stroke victim played by Piper Laurie; appearing in 1997 on “Chicago Hope” (on which son Adam was a series regular); and guesting on “Will & Grace” in 2005.

Alan Wolf Arkin was born in Brooklyn on March 26, 1934, but the family moved to Los Angeles when he was 12.

His father, David Arkin, an artist and writer, lost his job as a teacher amid the paranoia of the Red Scare. Alan started taking acting classes before he reached puberty. He attended Los Angeles City College for two years, then Bennington College from 1953-54, dropping out to form the Tarriers, a folk-music group in which he was the lead singer.

In 1955, he recorded an album for Elektra titled “Folksongs — Once Over Lightly.” With other members of the Tarriers, he wrote a version of the Jamaican calypso folk song “The Banana Boat Song” that was a big hit in 1956. He was already a young actor finding work where he could.

Arkin first appeared on the big screen, uncredited, in his role as lead singer of the Tarriers in 1957’s “Calypso Heat Wave.”

He made his Off Broadway debut as a singer in “Heloise” the following year. At the Compass Theatre in St. Louis, which he had joined, he caught the eye of stage director Paul Sills, which led to Arkin becoming an original member of Chicago’s Second City troupe together with Paul Sand.

He wrote the lyrics and sketches for his Broadway debut, the musical “From the Second City.” After winning his Tony in 1963, he returned to Broadway the next year in Murray Schisgal’s “Luv,” directed by Mike Nichols.

Arkin made his directorial stage debut with the Off Broadway hit “Eh?” (1966), which introduced the world to Dustin Hoffman. He further directed Off Broadway’s “Little Murders” (1969) and “The White House Murder Case” (1970). On Broadway, he directed the original production of Neil Simon’s extremely successful comedy “The Sunshine Boys,” which ran for 538 performances beginning in 1972. He directed the unsuccessful Broadway musical “Molly” in 1973 and was absent from the Rialto for 27 years until 2000, when he directed Elaine May’s play “Taller Than a Dwarf”; Matthew Broderick and Parker Posey starred.

Arkin was married three times, the first to Jeremy Yaffe, the second to actress Barbara Dana.

All three of his sons became actors, but Adam Arkin also became a director of episodic television. Speaking to Variety about how he came to direct, Adam Arkin said, “I often joke about the fact that when other kids were being taken to baseball games and sporting events and fishing trips, my father was taking me to see silent Russian films.”

In addition to his three sons — Adam and Matthew, with Yaffe; and Anthony Dana Arkin, with Dana — Alan Arkin is survived by third wife, Suzanne Newlander Arkin, whom he married in 1999.

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Coco Lee death: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon singer dies by suicide aged 48

Chinese-American star also voiced titular heroine in the Mandarin version of Disney’s ‘Mulan’
Tom Murray 7 hours ago



Coco Lee, the Hong Kong-born singer-songwriter and actor, has died by suicide aged 48, her siblings said on Wednesday (5 July).

The Chinese-American star was known for her hit song “A Love Before Time” from Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning martial arts film, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2001).

Lee had been living with depression for several years, her older sisters Carol and Nancy Lee said in a statement shared on social media.

The statement said: “Although CoCo sought professional help and did her best to fight depression, sadly that demon inside of her took the better of her.”

Lee tried to take her own life at home over the weekend and was taken to hospital, her sister said.

She was in a coma before dying on Wednesday.

Lee, who moved to the United States aged nine and went to school there, had a successful career in Asia as a pop singer in the 1990s and 2000s and was known for her powerful voice and live performances.

She was initially a Mandopop singer but branched out to release albums in Cantonese and English over her nearly 30-year career.

She was the voice of the titular heroine Fa Mulan in the Mandarin version of Disney’s Mulan and also sang the Mandarin version of the film’s theme song, “Reflection”.

In 2011, Lee married Bruce Rockowitz, a Canadian businessman who is the former chief executive of Hong Kong supply chain company Li & Fung.

While she had two stepdaughters from her marriage with Rockowitz, Lee did not have children of her own.

“CoCo is also known to have worked tirelessly to open up a new world for Chinese singers in the international music scene, and she went all out to shine for the Chinese,” her sisters said in their post.

“We are proud of her!”

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Andrea Evans, Beloved Vet of One Life to Live and Bold & Beautiful, Dead at 66
Richard Simms
Monday, July 10th, 2023


Paul Skipper/JPI; Sean Smith/JPI; ABC courtesy of Getty Images; CBS courtesy of Getty Images

Daytime lost another of its most iconic performers with the tragic news that Andrea Evans — best known for her stint as One Life to Live troublemaker Tina Lord — has passed away. The actress was only 66 years old when she took her last breath on July 9 after a bout with cancer.

The Illinois native first caught our attention when she appeared in the 1978 horror flick The Fury. But soap audiences fell hard for the fiery-haired beauty when she was cast as One Life to Live‘s Tina Lord. Almost immediately upon the character’s introduction, Tina — and her portrayer — became fan favorites. Although Evans was written out a few months after her arrival, the show quickly brought her back, revealing Tina to be the secret sibling of the show’s leading heroine, Victoria Lord.

In 1981, Evans left the Llanview-set sudser to join The Young and the Restless, where she played Paul Williams’ younger sister, Patty, who would eventually attempt to murder Jack Abbott upon discovering his infidelity.

But by 1985, Evans was back in Llanview — following several unsuccessful attempts at recasting the role she’d created. And although Tina would have other loves and lovers, it was the pairing of Evans with John Loprieno’s Cord which truly captured the heart of viewers.

It was at perhaps the height of her fame — shortly after securing a Daytime Emmy nomination in 1988 — that Evans would suddenly quit One Life to Live and essentially vanish from the public eye for nearly a decade. In a soap-worthy twist, she would later reveal that the true reason she’d given up her calling was because of a stalker.

Fortunately for her devoted fans, daytime was not ready to say farewell to Evans. She would go on to play one troublemaker (Bold & Beautiful‘s tawdry Tawny) after another (Passions‘ risqué Rebecca). But there was always a draw to Llanview, both for Evans and her fans, so in the summer of 2008 — even as she was appearing in the final episodes of Passions — she returned to One Life to Live.

“The timing is right,” she said in a statement released at that time. “I’m thrilled to be returning to the role of Tina, which I’ve always held near and dear to my heart. I’m looking forward to working once again with all my friends and ‘family’ at One Life to Live.”

Even as we mourn the loss of the much-loved actress, there is at least one bright star on the horizon: She reportedly completed work on her memoir, which will be released in the near future. She is survived by her husband, Steve, and daughter, Kylie.

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Tony Bennett, Master Pop Vocalist, Dies at 96
Story by Chris Morris • 15h ago


Variety

Tony Bennett, the master pop vocalist who had a professional career spanning eight decades with a No. 1 album at age 85, died on Friday morning in New York City. He was 96.

Bennett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2016, but had continued to perform and record through 2021.

His peer Frank Sinatra called him the greatest popular singer in the world. His recordings – most of them made for Columbia Records, which signed him in 1950 – were characterized by ebullience, immense warmth, vocal clarity and emotional openness. A gifted and technically accomplished interpreter of the Great American Songbook, he may be best known for his signature 1962 hit “I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”

He was equally at home in front of intimate combos (which often featured his pianist and longtime musical director Ralph Sharon) and lushly arranged orchestras. Though never strictly a jazz singer, he flourished in jazz settings, and cut memorable sessions with Count Basie’s big band and the lyrical pianist Bill Evans.

Active as a recording artist from 1949, and one of the top pop performers in the ‘50s and early ‘60s, Bennett saw his career surge anew in the ‘90s and again in the new millennium, under the management of his son Danny.

In later years, he memorably dueted on the standard “Body and Soul” with Amy Winehouse, and released a full-length duet album with Diana Krall and a pair of recordings with Lady Gaga. Even after the revelation in early 2021 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he remained active.

His last public appearance came with Gaga at Radio City Music Hall in August 2021, two months before his last release, the Bennett-Gaga set “Love for Sale,” the sequel to their chart-topping 2014 collaboration “Cheek to Cheek.”

After gaining a young new audience with smartly booked TV appearances, his “MTV Unplugged” album of 1994 — released when Bennett was 67 — won a Grammy as album of the year. A pair of “Duets” albums in 2006 and 2011 enlisted new fans; the latter release reached the apex of the U.S. chart.

Pondering Bennett’s unprecedented artistic longevity and enduring popularity in “A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers,” critic Will Friedwald wrote, “The idea that someone who sang the great show tunes of the Eisenhower era and earlier could compete with heavy metal and rap would have previously seemed fodder for one of those rapidly aging comics who opened for Sinatra.”

Winner of 18 Grammy Awards (with 36 total nominations), and a Recording Academy Lifetime Achievement Award recipient in 2001, Bennett also garnered two Emmy Awards. He was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2005 and a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2006.

The source of Bennett’s generation-hopping appeal may be best summed up in an observation about his singing by composer and critic Alec Wilder: “There is a quality about it that lets you in.”

He was born Anthony Dominick Benedetto in Astoria, Queens, New York on Aug. 3, 1926, to Italian immigrant parents; his father was a grocer, his mother a seamstress. Raised in poverty, he began singing as a child, and studied music and his other lifelong love, painting, at New York’s High School of Industrial Art. His vocal influences included Al Jolson, Bing Crosby and, later, Frank Sinatra, as well as such female singers as Billie Holiday and Judy Garland.

Drafted at 18 in 1944, he served in World War II’s European theater, doing combat infantry duty and liberating a German concentration camp. After the end of the conflict, he sang as a member of an Armed Forces band.

On his return from service, he studied voice with Miriam Spier in the American Theatre Wing. He cut his first, unsuccessful sides for independent Leslie Records in 1949, as “Joe Bari.”

A series of breaks raised his professional profile. An appearance on Arthur Godfrey’s talent show (where he placed second to Rosemary Clooney) led to a 1949 TV shot on Jan Murray’s “Songs for Sale.”

On the strength of that appearance, songstress Pearl Bailey hired him as a club opener, and Bob Hope was in the Greenwich Village venue to catch the performance. Taking the youthful vocalist under his wing, Hope rechristened him Tony Bennett (an abbreviation and Americanization of his given name) and hired him for his stage show at New York’s Paramount Theatre.

In 1950, Bennett submitted a demo of Harry Warren’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” to Columbia Records’ head of A&R Mitch Miller, who signed him to the label and encouraged him to develop his own style.

A remake of “Boulevard” was succeeded a trio of No. 1 pop singles: “Because of You” (1951), a recasting of Hank Williams’ country hit “Cold, Cold Heart” (1951) and the exuberant “Rags to Riches” (1953). The latter number was memorably used under the opening credits of Martin Scorsese’s 1990 gangster epic “Goodfellas.”

Bennett was a reliable if not top-flight hitmaker at Columbia during the ‘50s. He cut several noteworthy albums, including “The Beat of My Heart” (1957), a percussive, jazz-inflected set featuring drummers Art Blakey, Chico Hamilton and Jo Jones; “Strike Up the Band” and “In Person!” (both 1959), groundbreaking collaborations with the Count Basie Orchestra; and “Tony Sings for Two” (1961), an intimate duo recital with pianist Sharon, who joined Bennett as musical director in 1957.

It was Sharon who brought “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” penned by his friends George Cory and Douglass Cross, to Bennett’s concert book. Debuted during a December 1961 date at the Venetian Room of San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel, the number was issued as the B-side of “Once Upon a Time” in 1962. DJs began spinning the flip side, and though the song climbed no higher than No. 19 on the singles chart, it pushed its like-titled album to No. 5 nationally. Bennett won his first Grammys with the song, reaping record of the year and best male solo vocal performance.

A landmark 1962 concert at Carnegie Hall with Sharon’s trio was followed in 1963 by the top 20 hits “I Wanna Be Around” and “The Good Life.” But the ascent of rock on the charts shook Bennett’s career; he was further unmoored when Sharon exited his employ in 1965, and he bridled at Columbia’s attempts to “contemporize” his sound. After some misbegotten albums and a run of singles that barely scraped the lower reaches of the chart, Bennett split with the label in 1971.

Following a brief and unproductive association with MGM Records, Bennett started his own label, Improv. During this period, he cut a much-admired two-LP set of Rodgers & Hart songs and two celebrated duo albums with Bill Evans, both classics of vocal art. But, lacking proper distribution, Improv foundered in 1977.

Without a label or manager, embroiled in a nasty divorce from his second wife, hounded by the IRS and grappling with a near-fatal cocaine addiction, Bennett was at a personal low when Danny Bennett assumed management of his father’s career in 1980.

A renaissance ensued. Booked by his son on such hip TV enterprises as “The David Letterman Show” and the MTV Video Music Awards (with the Red Hot Chili Peppers), Bennett attained a fresh audience that was at best dimly aware of his earlier work. Returning to Columbia Records, he inaugurated a singular series of concept albums and renewed his work with Ralph Sharon. The widely admired album “The Art of Excellence” (1986) returned him to the charts.

He secured his renascent reputation with the Grammy-winning “Perfectly Frank” (1992) and “Steppin’ Out” (1993), tributes to Sinatra and Fred Astaire, respectively. A hip-hop themed video for the latter album’s title cut prefaced his triumphant “MTV Unplugged” special and album.

Bennett maintained his pace as a perennial Grammy winner in the traditional pop vocal category through the ‘90s and into the new millennium, with popular albums devoted to female vocalists, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and the blues. He waxed a Grammy-winning duet set, “A Wonderful World,” with K.D. Lang in 2002. He reunited with the Basie band in 2008 for “A Swingin’ Christmas.”

As his musical career continued its autumnal upswing, Bennett’s profile as a painter also rose. He counted artist David Hockney among his admirers and close friends. His work was exhibited in galleries internationally, and his rendering of New York’s Central Park hangs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. He published books about his art in 1996 and 2007. (An autobiography, “The Good Life,” written with Will Friedwald, was issued in 1998.)

Bennett collected primetime Emmys for his recitals “Live by Request” (1996) and “An American Classic” (2007). He dipped his toe into acting with appearances on the ‘60s detective show “77 Sunset Strip” and a featured role in “The Oscar” (1966).

Though his gleaming, soaring tenor darkened into a burnished, grainy baritone in the later years of his career, Bennett never lost his interpretive skills. Nowhere was his continuing agility demonstrated more ably than on his two “Duets” collections, which challengingly paired him with a panoply of much younger stars. The second collection hit the top of the charts with a 179,000-copy debut week in September 2011, making Bennett the oldest performer in history to release a No. 1 album.

He is survived by his wife Susan Benedetto, his two sons, Danny and Dae Bennett, his daughters Johanna Bennett and Antonia Bennett, and nine grandchildren.

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Sinéad O'Connor Dead at 56
The "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer had struggled for years with her mental health, and announced her retirement in 2021

By Rachel DeSantis Updated on July 26, 2023 03:17PM EDT


DAVID CORIO/REDFERNS/GETTY

Sinéad O'Connor, the Irish singer whose legacy with hits like "Nothing Compares 2 U" was complicated by her outspoken dedication to various social issues and a series of mental health struggles, has died. She was 56.

"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad," her family confirmed in a statement to RTE. "Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time."

The singer's death was first reported by The Irish Times. A rep for O'Connor did not immediately reply to PEOPLE's request for comment.

O'Connor broke through in 1990 with her No. 1 hit "Nothing Compares 2 U," a song written and composed by Prince. Prior to her death, she'd released 10 albums, most recently 2014's I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss.

Though the song was nominated for four Grammy Awards in 1991, she boycotted that year's ceremony, writing in an open letter that the Academy "acknowledge[s] mostly the commercial side of art."

Two years after her massive hit, O'Connor made headlines once more with an infamous appearance on Saturday Night Live, during which she tore up a photo of Pope John Paul II after performing an a cappella version of "War" by Bob Marley. She then told the audience to "Fight the real enemy."

The stunt sparked serious backlash toward O'Connor, though she has since said she has no regrets ("A lot of people say or think that tearing up the pope's photo derailed my career. That's not how I feel about it," she wrote in her 2021 book Rememberings. "I feel that having a number-one record derailed my career and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track").

In 2021, she announced her retirement from music and touring, writing that she'd "gotten older" and was "tired." Days later, though, she reversed course, saying, "I love my job. Making music that is. I don’t like the consequences of being a talented (and outspoken woman) being that I have to wade through walls of prejudice every day to make a living."

Born in Dublin on Dec. 8, 1966, O’Connor was the third of five children born to John, an engineer and lawyer, and his wife Johanna.

The young O’Connor’s childhood was rocky; her parents divorced, and in 2012, she told PEOPLE that her mother psychologically and physically abused her and “spent a good time trying to destroy my reproductive system.”

“It was a torture chamber, really,” she said. “But I forgive my mother; she just wasn’t well.”

She ran away to live with her father at age 13, but two years later, was sent to a Magdalene asylum for "unruly" women for 18 months after she was caught shoplifting.

O’Connor was eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder as well as complex post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder. In 2015, she underwent a radical hysterectomy to treat endometriosis, which sent her into a downward spiral.

"You can never predict what might trigger the [PTSD]. I describe myself as a rescue dog: I'm fine until you put me in a situation that even slightly smells like any of the trauma I went through, then I flip my lid," she told PEOPLE in 2021. "I manage very well because I've been taught brilliant skills. There was a lot of therapy. It's about focusing on the things that bring you peace as opposed to what makes you feel unstable."

Despite the trauma from her childhood, O'Connor was rattled by her mother's 1985 death in a car accident, and promptly moved to London for a fresh start after quitting the Irish band with whom she'd started playing music.

She released her debut album in 1987, and its 1990 followup I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got rocketed her to international fame on the back of "Nothing Compares 2 U," which became a global hit.

For O’Connor, it was more than just a song. “The song reminded me of my mother,” she later admitted. “I made an emotional connection, which I was not expecting—it didn’t hit me when I was recording the song. It only kicked in when I was being filmed. So I was sitting there, thinking about me mother, and trying hard not to bawl my eyes out.”

Though it was Prince’s song that made her a star, her feelings toward the late “Purple Rain” singer were complicated, and in a passage from Rememberings, she recalled an evening in which he scolded her for swearing in interviews, and allegedly tried to hurt her using a stuffed pillowcase.

“It certainly didn't change my opinion of him as an artist, which was the only opinion I could have had. I never knew him otherwise," she told PEOPLE in 2021 of the encounter. "Obviously, I came away not liking him very much and not particularly wanting to go around to see him again. But having said that, though, I won't lie. I didn't like the man."

In spite of the song's popularity, and the fact that she continued to release music, O'Connor's career never reached the same heights after her appearance on Saturday Night Live, and she instead became wracked with problems in her personal life, including a painful custody battle with John Waters, the father of her daughter Roisin.

Facing accusations that she was an unfit mother, she tried to take her own life in 1999, reportedly swallowing 20 Valium pills on her 33rd birthday.

“That was... after a session in court that day where it was suggested that for the rest of my life I would only see my daughter once a month,” she said in 2005. “I made a very serious suicide attempt, and I did almost die.”

As she healed, O'Connor threw herself into motherhood and religion, becoming an ordained priest of the Latin Tridentine Church (She later announced in 2018 that she'd converted to Islam).

Though she announced a retirement in 2003, explaining that she no longer wanted to be famous and wanted to live "a 'normal' life," she continued to release music.

Still, her mental health struggles continued to surface, culminating in a hospitalization in 2022 after the death of her 17-year-old son, Shane.

Shane, whom she shared with musician Dónal Lunny, went missing in January 2022, and O'Connor revealed days later that he'd died by suicide.

"My beautiful son, Nevi'im Nesta Ali Shane O'Connor, the very light of my life, decided to end his earthly struggle today and is now with God," she tweeted at the time. "May he rest in peace and may no one follow his example. My baby. I love you so much. Please be at peace."

In recent weeks, O'Connor appeared to be looking forward to the future, and wrote on Facebook that she was working on new music and had hopes for an international tour.

"Hi All, recently moved back to London after 23 years absence. Very happy to be home : ) Soon finishing my album. Release early next year : )" she wrote on July 11. "Hopefully Touring Australia and New Zealand toward end 2024. Europe, USA and other territories beginning early 2025 : ) #TheBitchIsBack"

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Pee-wee Herman actor Paul Reubens dies from cancer at 70
Story by By ANDREW DALTON, AP Entertainment Writer • 40m ago


AP Photo/Danny Moloshok

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Paul Reubens, the actor and comedian whose character Pee-wee Herman became a cultural phenomenon through films and TV shows, has died.

Reubens died Sunday night after a six-year struggle with cancer that he did not make public, his publicist said in a statement.

“Please accept my apology for not going public with what I’ve been facing the last six years,” Reubens said in a statement released with the announcement of his death. “I have always felt a huge amount of love and respect from my friends, fans and supporters. I have loved you all so much and enjoyed making art for you.”

The character with his too-tight gray suit, white chunky loafers and red bow tie was best known for the film “Pee-wee's Big Adventure” and the TV series “Pee-wee's Playhouse.”

Herman created Pee-wee when he was part of the Los Angeles improv group The Groundlings in the late 1970s. The live “Pee-wee Herman Show” debuted at a Los Angeles theater in 1981 and was a success with both kids during matinees and adults at a midnight show. HBO would air the show as a special.

Reubens took Pee-wee to the big screen in 1985’s “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.” The film, in which Pee-wee’s cherished bike is stolen, was said to be loosely based on Vittorio De Sica’s Italian neo-realist classic, “The Bicycle Thief.” The film, directed by Tim Burton and co-written by Phil Hartman of “Saturday Night Live,” sent Pee-wee on a nationwide escapade. The movie was a success, grossing $40 million, and continued to spawn a cult following for its oddball whimsy.

A sequel followed three years later in the less well-received “Big Top Pee-wee,” in which Pee-wee seeks to join a circus. Reubens’ character wouldn’t get another movie starring role until 2016’s Pee-wee’s Big Holiday,” for Netflix. Judd Apatow produced Pee-wee’s big-screen revival.

His television series, “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” ran for five seasons, earned 22 Emmys and attracted not only children but adults to Saturday-morning TV.

Both silly and subversive and championing nonconformity, the Pee-wee universe was a trippy place, populated by things such as a talking armchair and a friendly pterodactyl. The host, who is fond of secret words and loves fruit salad so much he once married it, is prone to lines like, “I know you are, but what am I?” and “Why don’t you take a picture; it’ll last longer?” The act was a hit because it worked on multiple levels, even though Reubens insists that wasn’t the plan.

“It’s for kids,” Reubens told The Associated Press in 2010. “People have tried to get me for years to go, ‘It wasn’t really for kids, right?’ Even the original show was for kids. I always censored myself to have it be kid-friendly.

“The whole thing has been just a gut feeling from the beginning," Reubens told the AP. "That’s all it ever is and I think always ever be. Much as people want me to dissect it and explain it, I can’t. One, I don’t know, and two, I don’t want to know, and three, I feel like I’ll hex myself if I know.”

Associated Press Writer Alicia Rancilio and Film Writer Jake Coyle contributed to this report.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BOHiZAaIdM

[Vodkaman]

I still can't believe he was made an outcast for jacking his dick in a X rated theater. RIP

[nzdawghaus]

Robbie Robertson - July 5, 1943 - August 9, 2023

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