The RIP Thread

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Academy' and Broadway star, dies at 73
By Travis Caldwell and Megan Thomas, CNN
Updated 12:15 AM EST, Fri January 08, 2021



(CNN)Marion Ramsey, the actress best known for her role as Officer Laverne Hooks in the film franchise "Police Academy," died Thursday in Los Angeles at the age of 73, according to a statement to CNN from manager Roger Paul. No cause of death was given.

"Marion carried with her a kindness and permeating light that instantly filled a room upon her arrival. The dimming of her light is already felt by those who knew her well. We will miss her, and always love her," the statement said.

Born in Philadelphia, Ramsey's entertainment career started on stage. She co-starred in Broadway shows, including productions of "Eubie!" and "Grind," and toured the nation in the musical "Hello Dolly."

Ramsey began her way into television with a guest role on the hit series "The Jeffersons," and was a regular in "Cos," the Bill Cosby sketch comedy series.



Her most well-known role was in the 1984 movie "Police Academy" as Officer Hooks, whose soft-spoken demeanor was punctuated by memorable outbursts. Ramsey starred in five additional "Police Academy" films through the 1980s.

She started voice acting in "The Addams Family" cartoon series from the early 1990s, which aired for two seasons.
Ramsey was deeply committed to AIDS awareness and lent her voice for charitable causes, performing in "Divas Simply Singing," an annual fundraising event.

Later in her TV and film career, she had guest appearances on Adult Swim shows "Robot Chicken" and "Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!"

In 2015, she reunited with "Policy Academy" stars Steve Guttenberg and Michael Winslow in the Syfy camp movie "Lavalantula" and its sequel "2 Lava 2 Lantula!" the following year. Her final acting role was in the 2018 indie film "When I Sing."

She is survived by her three brothers.

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[The Godfather]

Dammit

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Longtime MLB home run king Hank Aaron dies at 86
ESPN News Services** 11:13 AM ET



Henry Louis "Hank" Aaron, the Hall of Fame slugger whose 755 career home runs long stood as baseball's golden mark, has died. He was 86.

"Our family is heartbroken to hear the news of Hank Aaron's passing," Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement on behalf of the Aaron family. "Hank Aaron was an American icon and one of Georgia's greatest legends. His life and career made history, and his influence was felt not only in the world of sports, but far beyond -- through his important work to advance civil rights and create a more equal, just society. We ask all Georgians to join us in praying for his fans, family, and loved ones as we remember Hammerin' Hank's incredible legacy."

The Atlanta Braves said in a release that Aaron died peacefully in his sleep.

One of the sport's great stars despite playing for the small-market Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves throughout a major league career that spanned from 1954 to 1976, Aaron still holds major league records for RBIs (2,297), total bases (6,856) and extra-base hits (1,477), and he ranks among MLB's best in hits (3,771, third all time), games played (3,298, third) and runs scored (2,174, fourth).

But it was Hammerin' Hank's sweet home run swing for which he was best known.

A 6-foot, 180-pounder, Aaron broke Babe Ruth's hallowed home run mark on April 8, 1974, slugging his record 715th off Los Angeles Dodgers left-hander Al Downing in the fourth inning as 50,000-plus fans celebrated in Atlanta. In one of baseball's iconic moments, Aaron trotted around the basepaths -- despite briefly being interrupted by two fans -- and ultimately touched home plate, where teammates hoisted him, his parents embraced him and he was interviewed by a young Craig Sager.

Aaron went on to play two more seasons and finished with 755 career home runs, a mark that stood as the major league record until Barry Bonds broke it in 2007.

"We are absolutely devastated by the passing of our beloved Hank," Braves chairman Terry McGuirk said in a statement. "He was a beacon for our organization first as a player, then with player development, and always with our community efforts. His incredible talent and resolve helped him achieve the highest accomplishments, yet he never lost his humble nature. Henry Louis Aaron wasn't just our icon, but one across Major League Baseball and around the world. His success on the diamond was matched only by his business accomplishments off the field and capped by his extraordinary philanthropic efforts.

"We are heartbroken and thinking of his wife Billye and their children Gaile, Hank, Jr., Lary, Dorinda and Ceci and his grandchildren."

Kemp issued an order to have the flags fly at half-staff at all state buildings in Georgia until sunset on the day of Aaron's funeral to honor his "groundbreaking career and tremendous impact on our state and nation."

Despite allegations that Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs, Aaron never begrudged someone eclipsing his mark. His common refrain: More than three decades as the king was long enough. It was time for someone else to hold the record.

Bonds expressed his "deepest respect and admiration" for Aaron in a statement on Twitter.

Rest In Peace #HankAaron. A true baseball legend. pic.twitter.com/bDeuzfh8hx

— Barry L Bonds (@BarryBonds) January 22, 2021


Aaron finished his career with a host of accolades. He was the National League MVP in 1957 -- the same year the Braves won the World Series -- a two-time NL batting champion (1956, '59), a three-time Gold Glove winner in right field (1958-60) and a record 25-time All-Star, earning that honor every season but his first and last.

He finished his career back in Milwaukee, traded to the Brewers after the 1974 season when he refused to take a front-office job that would have required a big pay cut.

The Brewers will wear No. 44 on their jersey sleeves throughout the 2021 season as a tribute to Aaron.

Aaron was enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, receiving 97.8% approval in his first year on the ballot, nine votes short of being the first unanimous choice ever. In 1999, MLB created the Hank Aaron Award, given annually to the best hitter in both the AL and NL.

"Hank Aaron is near the top of everyone's list of all-time great players," said MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in a statement -- one of many to appear on social media Friday. "His monumental achievements as a player were surpassed only by his dignity and integrity as a person. Hank symbolized the very best of our game, and his all-around excellence provided Americans and fans across the world with an example to which to aspire. His career demonstrates that a person who goes to work with humility every day can hammer his way into history -- and find a way to shine like no other."

Off the field, Aaron was an activist for civil rights, having been a victim of racial inequalities. Aaron was born Feb. 5, 1934, in Mobile, Alabama, and didn't play organized high school baseball because only white students had teams. During the buildup to his passing of Ruth's home run mark, threats were made on his life by people who did not want to see a Black man break the record.

"If I was white, all America would be proud of me," Aaron said almost a year before he passed Ruth. "But I am Black."

Aaron was shadowed constantly by bodyguards and forced to distance himself from teammates. He kept all those hateful letters, a bitter reminder of the abuse he endured and never forgot.

"This is a considerable loss for the entire city of Atlanta," Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said in a statement. "While the world knew him as 'Hammering Hank Aaron' because of his incredible, record-setting baseball career, he was a cornerstone of our village, graciously and freely joining Mrs. Aaron in giving their presence and resources toward making our city a better place. As an adopted son of Atlanta, Mr. Aaron was part of the fabric that helped place Atlanta on the world stage. Our gratitude, thoughts and prayers are with the Aaron family."

The NFL's Atlanta Falcons and MLS' Atlanta United both said that they would retire their No. 44 jerseys for the 2021 season.

Aaron, who initially hit with a cross-handed style, was spotted by the Braves while trying out for the Indianapolis Clowns, a Negro Leagues team. The Giants also were interested, but Aaron signed with Milwaukee, spent two seasons in the minors and came up to the Braves in 1954 after Bobby Thomson was injured in spring training.

Aaron's debut was hardly glowing: He struck out twice and hit into a double play while going 0-for-5. His first home run came before April was done, against Vic Raschi. By season's end, the rookie had put up promising numbers: 13 homers, 69 RBIs and a .280 average.

He was a full-fledged star by 1957, when he led the Braves to that World Series victory over Mickey Mantle's New York Yankees. The following year, Milwaukee made it back to the Series, only to blow a 3-1 lead and lose to the Yankees in seven games. Though he played for nearly two more decades, Aaron never came so close to a championship again.

After retiring as a player, Aaron made amends with the Braves for trading him away. He returned as a vice president and director of player development, a task he held for 13 years before settling into a largely ceremonial role as senior vice president and assistant to the president in 1989. He hoped more Black players could find front-office work after their playing days were finished.

"On the field, Blacks have been able to be super giants," he once said. "But once our playing days are over, this is the end of it and we go back to the back of the bus again."

Former MLB commissioner Bud Selig called Aaron, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002, a "true Hall of Famer in every way."

"Besides being one of the greatest baseball players of all time, Hank was a wonderful and dear person and a wonderful and dear friend," Selig said in a statement. "Not long ago, he and I were walking the streets of Washington, D.C. together and talking about how we've been the best of friends for more than 60 years. Then Hank said: 'Who would have ever thought all those years ago that a black kid from Mobile, Alabama would break Babe Ruth's home run record and a Jewish kid from Milwaukee would become the Commissioner of Baseball?'"

Aaron's death follows that of seven other baseball Hall of Famers in 2020 and two more -- Tommy Lasorda and Don Sutton -- already this year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Mira Furlan, 'Lost' and 'Babylon 5' actress, dies of West Nile Virus complications at 65
Jenna Ryu USA TODAY
Published 1:29 p.m. ET Jan. 22, 2021 | Update 1:38 p.m. Jan. 22, 2021



Chris Weeks, Getty Images for Hollywood Film


Mira Furlan, famed for her roles in "Lost" and "Babylon 5," died Wednesday at 65.

Her manager Chris Roe confirmed in a statement to USA TODAY Furlan died "following complications from West Nile Virus."

"It is with great sadness that I confirm the passing of Mira Furlan," he wrote. "She was a woman full of kindness, strength and compassion. … She died peacefully at her home in Los Angeles, surrounded by her family. We will all continue to celebrate her life and legacy, and know she’ll always be here with us."

Furlan's talent agent Steven Neibert remembered her as a "compassionate and giving person."

"Not only was she so talented but was down-to-earth and real which isn’t always the norm in our business. The Imperium 7 Talent Agency family will miss her dearly and our thoughts and prayers are with her family," Neibert wrote in an email.

“Babylon 5” creator J. Michael Straczynski took to Twitter toshare a lengthy tribute on Thursday.

"We've known for some time now that Mira's health was failing...I'm not sure that this is the right time or place to discuss the sheer randomness of what happened...and have all been dreading this day. We kept hoping that she would improve," Straczynski wrote.

"Mira was a good and kind woman, a stunningly talented performer, and a friend to everyone in the cast and crew of Babylon 5, and we are all devastated by the news. The cast members with whom she was especially close since the show’s end will need room to process this moment, so please be gentle if they are unresponsive for a time. We have been down this road too often, and it only gets harder.”

'Lost' 15th anniversary:Here's to polar bears, brainy sci-fi, Sawyer and Kate

Born in the former Yugoslavia, Furlan emigrated to the U.S. in 1991. She went on to star as Ambassador Delenn in 1993's "Babylon 5" for all five seasons, and landed the role of Danielle Rousseau in the ABC drama series "Lost" from 2004 to 2010.

Her other notable credits include "My Antonia" (1995) and the Oscar-nominated Yugoslavian film "When Father Was Away on Business" (2000), and she guest starred in a Season 6 episode of "NCIS" as Dina Risi in 2009.

She is survived by her husband, Goran Gajic, and their son, Marko.

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

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Ha hah! I unsurped you sir!

--------------------------------------------------------

Larry King, legendary talk show host, dies at 87
By Tom Kludt and Brad Parks, CNN
Updated 12:21 PM EST, Sat January 23, 2021



(CNN)Larry King, the longtime CNN host who became an icon through his interviews with countless newsmakers and his sartorial sensibilities, has died. He was 87.

King hosted "Larry King Live" on CNN for over 25 years, interviewing presidential candidates, celebrities, athletes, movie stars and everyday people. He retired in 2010 after taping more than 6,000 episodes of the show.

Larry King is seen on the set of his CNN show in November 2010.
King was married to Sharon Lepore from 1976 to 1982. King was married eight times in his life, to seven women.

A statement was posted on his verified Facebook account announcing his passing. His son, Chance, confirmed King's death Saturday morning.

"With profound sadness, Ora Media announces the death of our co-founder, host and friend Larry King, who passed away this morning at age 87 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles," the statement said.

"For 63 years and across the platforms of radio, television and digital media, Larry's many thousands of interviews, awards, and global acclaim stand as a testament to his unique and lasting talent as a broadcaster."

The statement did not give a cause of death.

He battled a number of health problems
King had been hospitalized with Covid-19 in late December at Cedars-Sinai, a source close to the family said at the time.

He battled a number of health problems over the years, suffering several heart attacks. In 1987, he underwent quintuple bypass surgery, inspiring him to establish the Larry King Cardiac Foundation to provide assistance to those without insurance.

More recently, King revealed in 2017 that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and successfully underwent surgery to treat it. He also underwent a procedure in 2019 to address angina.

King also suffered personal loss last year when two of his adult children died within weeks of each other: Andy King, 65, suffered a heart attack and daughter Chaia King, 52, died after being diagnosed with lung cancer. King is survived by three sons.

He interviewed every president from Ford to Obama

In an era filled with star newsmen, King was a giant -- among the most prominent questioners on television and a host to presidents, movie stars and world class athletes.

With an affable, easygoing demeanor that distinguished him from more intense TV interviewers, King perfected a casual approach to the Q&A format, always leaning forward and listening intently to his guests, rarely interrupting.

"I've never learned anything," King was fond of saying, "while I was talking."

CNN President Jeff Zucker on Saturday acknowledged King's role in raising the network profile around the world.

"We mourn the passing of our colleague Larry King," he said in a statement.

"The scrappy young man from Brooklyn had a history-making career spanning radio and television. His curiosity about the world propelled his award-winning career in broadcasting, but it was his generosity of spirit that drew the world to him. We are so proud of the 25 years he spent with CNN, where his newsmaker interviews truly put the network on the international stage. From our CNN family to Larry's, we send our thoughts and prayers, and a promise to carry on his curiosity for the world in our work."

For that quarter century, King hosted "Larry King Live" on CNN, a span that was highlighted by more than 30,000 interviews, including every sitting president from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama, and thousands of phone calls from viewers.

Wendy Walker, his longtime executive producer on the show, said King treated all of his interview subjects the same -- from heads of state to ordinary Americans.

Celebrities and newsmakers are paying tribute to broadcasting legend Larry King
"The one thing he loved was being in front of that camera," she said. "He was a very interesting man but that one hour a day, when those lights came on, he was just perfect. He treated every guest the same. It didn't matter if it was a president or somebody just off the street."

King was known for not spending time preparing for interviews, preferring instead to let his natural curiosity guide the conversations, Walker said.

"Probably that was the hardest part of our job -- trying to prepare him because he never wanted to be prepared," she recalled. "He read all day long and watched news, so he was really informed but he really just wanted to hear his guests talk and then come up with his questions."

The show made King one of the faces of the network, and one of the most famous television journalists in the country. His column in USA Today, which ran for nearly 20 years until 2001, showcased King's distinct style in print, inviting readers down a trail of non-sequiturs that served as a window into his mind.

Larry King: An appreciation of his legacy from CNN president Jeff Zucker
"The most underutilized player in the NFL this year was Washington's Desmond Howard...Despite what you think of Lawrence Walsh, we will always have the need for a special prosecutor because a government cannot investigate itself," King wrote in a 1992 column.

Those musings, combined with his unmistakable appearance -- oversized glasses, ever-present suspenders -- made King ripe for caricature. In the 1990s, he was portrayed on "Saturday Night Live" by Norm MacDonald, who channeled the USA Today column with a spot-on impersonation.

Jokes aside, King's influence is evident today in the generation of podcasters who have mimicked -- whether deliberate or not -- his conversational approach to interviews.

"A good interview — you know more than you do before you start. You should come away with maybe some of your opinions changed," King told the Los Angeles Times in 2018. "You should certainly come away entertained — an interviewer is also an entertainer."

He started his media career as a disc jockey

Born Lawrence Harvey Zeiger on November 19, 1933, in Brooklyn, New York, King was raised by two Jewish immigrants. His mother, Jennie (Gitlitz) Zeiger, was from Lithuania, while his father, Edward Zeiger, hailed from Ukraine. Edward died of a heart attack when King was 10, a memory King said he mostly "blocked out."

Left to raise King and his younger brother Marty alone, Jennie Zeiger was forced to go on welfare to support her children. The death had a profound effect on King, and his mother.

"Prior to his death, I'd been a good student but afterwards, I just stopped being interested," King told The Guardian in a 2015 interview. "It was a real blow to me. But eventually I channeled that anger because I wanted to make him and my mother proud."

King said his father had enormous influence on him, instilling in his son a sense of humor and a love of sports. And no sport drew more of King's affection than baseball.

He grew up a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and continued to support the team after its move to Los Angeles. He was a fixture at the team's home games in Dodger Stadium, often spotted in the high-priced seats behind home plate. In 2004, King wrote a book aptly titled, "Why I Love Baseball."

"He was a voracious Dodgers fan, baseball fan," said longtime friend and Dodgers sportscaster Charley Steiner. "And we would fuss and fight about what the Dodgers were doing. He was terribly frustrated year after year when the Dodgers would win the division, fall short in the World Series. But this year he got to see the Dodgers win the World Series. It made him enormously happy."

King's career in media began in earnest in 1957, when he took a job as a disc jockey at WAHR-AM in Miami. It was then when he made the decision to drop his surname.

"You can't use Larry Zeiger," he recalled his boss at the station saying. "It's too ethnic. People won't be able to spell it or remember it. You need a better name."

"There was no time to think about whether this was good or bad or what my mother would say. I was going on the air in five minutes," King wrote in his 2009 autobiography.

"The Miami Herald was spread out on his desk. Face-up was a full-page ad for King's Wholesale Liquors. The general manager looked down and said, 'King! How about Larry King?'"

It was around this time that King entered what would become a string of failed marriages. His union with Frada Miller was annulled, and the dates of his second marriage with Annette Kaye are publicly unavailable.

From 1961-63, King was married to Alene Akins, whom he married again from 1967-71; before they re-married, King tied the knot with Mickey Sutphin in 1964 before they divorced in 1966.

He had two more divorces -- with Sharon Lepore, with whom he was married from 1976-82, and Julie Alexander, with whom he was married from 1989-92 -- before marrying his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick in 1997 at UCLA Medical Center, as he was about to undergo cardiac surgery. King filed for divorce from Southwick in 2019, citing irreconcilable differences.

Larry King is recovering in the hospital after undergoing a heart procedure
King remained in Miami for years, eventually getting hired as a columnist for the Miami Herald in 1965. In 1971, he was arrested in Miami on charges of grand larceny, which led to his suspension from the station and newspaper where he was employed. Although the charges were dismissed the following year, King was not re-hired, prompting him to decamp Florida and head to Louisiana, where he worked as a freelance journalist.

By 1978, King returned to Miami and to WIOD, the station where he was employed at the time of his arrest. The same year, "The Larry King Show" launched as a syndicated late-night radio show. It originally aired in 28 cities; within five years, it had spread to 118 cities, serving as the springboard to fame. The show won a Peabody Award in 1982.

In 1985, "Larry King Live" premiered on CNN, beginning a long and storied run that included a number of high-profile interviews. Throughout its more than two decades on air, the show was routinely CNN's most-watched program, and King was arguably the network's biggest star.

King left CNN in 2011, a move he expected would amount to retirement. But he kept working until his death, hosting "Larry King Now," a program that aired on Ora TV, Hulu and RT America. King, it seemed, just never wanted the interview to end.

"I just love what I do," he said, "I love asking questions, I love doing the interviews."

CNN's Ray Sanchez and David J. Lopez contributed to this report.

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Cloris Leachman, Oscar-winning actress who played Frau Blücher (neighhh!) in ‘Young Frankenstein,’ dies at 94
By Adam Bernstein Jan. 27, 2021 at 2:04 p.m. PST



(George Brich/AP)

Cloris Leachman, a multifaceted Oscar-winning actress who gave a tour de force performance as a desperately lonely Texas housewife in “The Last Picture Show” and a tour de farce portrayal of the grim-faced Transylvanian housekeeper Frau Blücher in “Young Frankenstein,” died Jan. 27 at her home in Encinitas, Calif. She was 94.

Her manager, Juliet Green, confirmed the death but did not give a precise cause.

Ms. Leachman began her astonishingly prolific eight-decade career performing radio plays as a child in Iowa. She appeared in Shakespearean comedy and Eugene O’Neill melodrama on Broadway in the 1950s, was a television mainstay from the dawn of the medium and, at 82, became the oldest female contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.” In the industriousness she displayed into her senior years, she was matched perhaps only by comedian Betty White.

Lissome and alluring in her prime — she had been a Miss America finalist at 20 — Ms. Leachman often played down or even grotesquely obscured her looks on-screen. She donned hairy warts, dominatrix outfits and ludicrously conical breasts for films under director Mel Brooks, including the 1930s horror-film sendup “Young Frankenstein” (1974), the Alfred Hitchcock parody “High Anxiety” (1977) and the madcap “History of the World: Part I” (1981).

“I was madly in love with Cloris right from the beginning,” Brooks later wrote of their collaboration on “Young Frankenstein.” “She could do anything.”

Ms. Leachman won eight Primetime Emmy Awards and one Daytime Emmy — for years, a record for an actress — for roles as varied as the flamboyantly overbearing landlady Phyllis Lindstrom on the 1970s CBS sitcom “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and a foster mother of a musically gifted disabled child in the ABC after-school special “The Woman Who Willed a Miracle” (1983).

She received other Emmys for playing a 40-year-old woman unnerved by her first pregnancy in the ABC-TV film “A Brand New Life” (1973), her 1975 singing appearance on the CBS musical variety series “Cher” and as the insensitive grandmother on the early-2000s comedy series “Malcolm in the Middle” on Fox.

In 1974, she portrayed an itinerant farmworker struggling to keep her family together in the CBS film “The Migrants,” based on a Tennessee Williams story. “She disappears into the role; we are never conscious of any acting,” arts critic John Leonard wrote in the New York Times.

“The Last Picture Show” (1971), directed in black and white by Peter Bogdanovich and based on a Larry McMurtry novel set in a desolate north Texas prairie town in 1951, was a showcase for Ms. Leachman’s dramatic range.

As the neglected wife of a high school football coach, she depicted the longing of a middle-aged woman seeking emotional connection. The search leads to an affair with one of her husband’s players (Timothy Bottoms), a sensitive youth who briefly abandons her for a fling with the town beauty (Cybill Shepherd). Ms. Leachman’s portrayal, weaving resignation, lashing anger and ultimately tenderness, was a master class in the rendering of wounded pride.

The character, she told the Houston Chronicle, recalled for her a cow going to slaughter. “There’s not a lot of fight in them,” she said. “Pigs, they’d squeal and thrash around. They’d fight. It’s almost as if cows don’t know they have a choice. Not that they don’t panic, but they do so in a quiet way. . . . They’re frozen. Like Ruth is.”

Ms. Leachman won an Academy Award for her supporting part and later reprised the role in a tepid sequel, “Texasville” (1990).

It was “Young Frankenstein,” however, that delivered her enduring place in film history. The movie was bursting with brilliant visual and verbal gags that paid irreverent tribute to Universal Studios horror films such as “Frankenstein” with Boris Karloff and “Dracula” with Bela Lugosi.

The cast included Gene Wilder (who co-wrote the script) as Frederick Frankenstein, the high-strung American grandson of Mary Shelley’s mad scientist. He tries to rebel against his heritage (“that’s Frahn-kahn-STEEN”) but is inexorably drawn back into his grandfather Victor’s work making a monster in his eerie mountaintop laboratory. Marty Feldman played his cheeky manservant, Igor (“that’s EYE-gor”).

To play Frau Blücher, Ms. Leachman tied her hair in a tight bun, affixed a chin mole and gave her skin a sickly pallor with makeup — she was made to resemble Judith Anderson’s severe housekeeper Mrs. Danvers from “Rebecca” (1940). But the pièce de résistance was her German accent and her fearsome glare. Horses whinny in horror at the mention of her name.

Ms. Leachman made the deadpan most of her deliciously cockeyed lines. “Stay close to zee candles,” she says, holding an oversized candelabra with unlit candlesticks as she climbs a shadowy staircase. She overdoes her offer of a nightcap to an increasingly angry Frankenstein, first proffering brandy, then “varm milk . . . perhaps?” and, finally, the chocolate malted kid’s drink Ovaltine. Later, she confesses to a dark secret: “Yes! Yes!” she shouts of Victor Frankenstein. “He voss my boyfriend!”

Three years later, when Brooks asked her to play the bondage-loving Nurse Diesel in “High Anxiety,” she said he essentially imagined a reprise of Frau Blücher in a psychiatric institution.

To avoid duplicating the role, she sported what she described as “torpedo-shaped breasts” that jutted to her chin. She penciled in a light mustache and spoke through pursed lips and the corner of her mouth, sounding like the TV host Ed Sullivan.

“My intention,” she told the Los Angeles Times, “is not to do something I’ve done before.”

Rural beginnings

Cloris Leachman was born in Des Moines on April 30, 1926, and grew up in a lonely rural patch of land beyond the city limits. Her father, a lumber company owner, was taciturn and remote, she recalled in her self-titled memoir. Her mother, she said, was determined to light a creative spark in her three daughters, of whom Cloris was the oldest. (Her sister Claiborne Cary became an actress and cabaret singer.)

Ms. Leachman attended Northwestern University on a drama scholarship, did modeling and won the Miss Chicago beauty contest, which propelled her to the 1946 Miss America pageant in Atlantic City.

“I had the good sense not to win,” she told the Toronto Star a half-century later. “I wanted $1,000 cash as runner-up.”

She went to New York, where she studied at the fledgling Actors Studio workshop under director Elia Kazan, and was a replacement for Mary Martin as Nellie Forbush in the original Broadway run of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical “South Pacific.”

Ms. Leachman made a strong critical impression as the capricious Celia in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” (1950), which starred Katharine Hepburn as Rosalind, and in a series of other short-lived Broadway plays, including a 1958 production of O’Neill’s “A Touch of the Poet” as the headstrong daughter Sara Melody.

Television work provided a secure paycheck — except when Ms. Leachman, known for her tart tongue, indulged in flouting industry protocol. She was fired in 1958 as the young mother on the TV show “Lassie” because she refused to do promotional work for the sponsor, Campbell’s Soup. “I make my own soup,” she snapped. “I don’t eat yours.”

Her movie debut had been in “Kiss Me Deadly” (1955), based on the Mickey Spillane thriller, in which she made a memorable entrance running barefoot on a lonely highway, wearing only a raincoat. She later had a small part as a long-haired prostitute in “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969).

She was a perpetual guest star on TV shows ranging from “The Twilight Zone” to “Rawhide” before “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” made her a household name in the early 1970s and earned her two Emmys for her supporting role. A spinoff, “Phyllis,” aired on CBS from 1975 to 1977, featuring her as a decidedly ungrieving widow in San Francisco.

Ms. Leachman continued to bring great sensitivity to her dramatic roles, including her long-running one-woman stage show about the painter Grandma *Moses; her Emmy-winning guest turn in 1998 as a dying matriarch in the CBS drama series “Promised Land”; and her portrayal of the supportive mother of violinist Roberta Guaspari (played by Meryl Streep) in “Music of the Heart” (1999).

She also replaced Charlotte Rae in 1986 as the housemother to a group of female adolescents on “The Facts of Life,” staying with the NBC sitcom until its cancellation in 1988.

But for the most part, she embraced unorthodox, aggressively undignified parts. She was Tea Leoni’s alcoholic, jazz-singing mother in the comedy “Spanglish” (2004), portrayed an inappropriately frisky prison secretary in “The Longest Yard” (2005) opposite Adam Sandler, and was the sausage-loving grandmother in the raunchy “Beerfest” (2006). She spouted vulgarities as a guest on Comedy Central’s roast of actor and comedian Bob Saget in 2008 and later played a kooky grandmother on the Fox sitcom “Raising Hope.”

An uninhibited interviewee, Ms. Leachman spoke about her longtime open marriage to producer-director George Englund, whom she later divorced; her one-night stand with “feisty lad” Gene Hackman; and her on-set flirtations with “Mary Tyler Moore” co-star Ed Asner, with whom she agreed to an assignation if he lost 32 pounds. “He got to 29 pounds, and he went back up,” she told the Bergen Record. “I don’t know who was more frightened, he or I.”

She had five children from her marriage, including Bryan, who died of a drug overdose in 1986. In addition to her other children — Adam, Morgan, George Jr. and Dinah — survivors include seven grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Despite a litany of physical ailments, the aging Ms. Leachman underwent an excruciating training regimen to compete on “Dancing With the Stars.” The judges were charmed by her moxie but not impressed with her moves. Although voted off the show, she jokingly refused to leave, basking in a standing ovation from the live audience.

“Courage is something not generally associated with acting,” she wrote in her memoir. “For me, it’s a crucial element.”

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(Jeff Christensen/AP)

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Cicely Tyson gave her last interview on 'Live with Kelly and Ryan.' Here's what she said
Sara M Moniuszko and Elise Brisco, USA TODAY 1 hr ago


Richard Shotwell, Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP


A day before her death, Cicely Tyson did a virtual interview on "Live with Kelly and Ryan," where she talked about her childhood, how she snagged her leading role and her vegetarian lifestyle.

The actress and cherished icon, who was first Oscar-nominated for 1972's "Sounder" and 45 years later was honored with an honorary golden statuette for her body of work, died Thursday at age 96, her manager Larry Thompson confirmed to USA TODAY.

Her memoir, "Just As I Am" was released just two days before her she died.

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In the interview, which aired Friday, Tyson described how she was initially turned away from the role as Rebecca in "Sounder" and how she landed it.

"They said, 'You're too young, you're too pretty, you're too sexy, you're too this, you're too that' and I said but I'm an actress," Tyson said.

The role of Rebecca was originally offered to actress Gloria Foster, but Foster declined in the negotiation stage.

Tyson recalled when her manager broke the news to her that Foster turned it down, Tyson replied "because it doesn't belong to her."

Tyson went on to make incredible impact in the entertainment industry.

Through her, Black women were represented roundly and robustly over seven decades on screens big and small. She trailblazed roles portraying the lives of women ranging from fictional slave-turned-activist Jane Pittman and educator Marva Collins to activist Coretta Scott King and abolitionist Harriet Tubman.

When describing her motivation behind pursuing certain roles, Tyson told Ripa and Seacrest that she never took jobs for the pay.

"I never really worked for money,” she said. "I’ve worked because there were certain issues that I wish were addressed about myself and my race as a Black woman."

And she did. It's difficult to convey just how deeply the actress permeated American culture through the decades. Tyson helped bring "Roots" to life in 1977 as Binta, Kunta Kinte’s mother; she stole the show in 1991's "Fried Green Tomatoes," gave weight to 2011's "The Help" and grounded modern TV series such as "House of Cards" and "How to Get Away With Murder."

Kelly and Ryan also celebrated Tyson for reaching her 96th birthday and asked about her nutritional regimen.

Tyson said she never drank or smoked and never did any drugs. However, there was one moment in history that turned her on the path to vegetarianism.

"When Martin Luther King was assassinated, I was so stunned by that, that I became a vegetarian and I've been that most of my life." Tyson said.

Contributing: Andrea Mandell, Bill Keveney

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[Frothy Afterbirth]

Dustin Diamond, 'Saved by the Bell' star, dead at 44
By Lisa Respers France, CNN
Updated 2:48 PM EST, Mon February 01, 2021




(CNN)Dustin Diamond, who played the role of Screech on the popular 1990s high school comedy "Saved by the Bell," died Monday after a recent cancer diagnosis, according to Diamond's manager, Roger Paul.

He was 44.

Diamond first shared news of his cancer diagnosis last month.

At the time, his manager said his client's health was "serious" and that Diamond was undergoing further testing at a Florida hospital. He underwent his first round of chemotherapy days later.

An actor and stand-up comedian, Diamond found fame playing Samuel "Screech" Powers for more than a decade on the "Saved by the Bell" franchise.

The teen series was recently reimagined by the Peacock streaming service with some of the original stars, though not Diamond.

He stirred controversy with his 2009 book "Behind the Bell," in which Diamond shared backstage stories about shooting the series with some of his accounts being less than flattering to his costars.

He also faced some legal troubles, serving three months in jail for stabbing a man during a 2014 altercation at a bar in Wisconsin.

The actor has appeared in a number of reality shows over the years, including "Celebrity Fit Club," "Celebrity Boxing 2" and "Celebrity Championship Wrestling." In 2018, he appeared as his "Saved by the Bell" character in the Funny or Die series, "Zack Morris Is Trash."

Diamond's "Save by the Bell" costars, Mario Lopez and Tiffany Thiessen, paid tribute to the late actor on Instagram.

"Dustin, you will be missed my man," Lopez wrote. "The fragility of this life is something never to be taken for granted. Prayers for your family will continue on."

"I am deeply saddened by I the news of my old co-star @realdustindiamond passing," Thiessen wrote. "Life is extremely fragile and it's something we should never take for granted. God speed Dustin.

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[The Godfather]

Oh no, not Screech!

[Frothy Afterbirth]

Christopher Plummer, Oscar Winner and ‘Sound of Music’ Star, Dies at 91
By Richard Natale
February 5, 2021 9:58am PT


Clive Limpkin/ANL/REX/Shutterstock

Christopher Plummer, the Canadian-born Shakespearean actor who starred in films including “The Sound of Music” and “Beginners,” died on Friday morning at his home in Connecticut. He was 91.

“Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self deprecating humor and the music of words,” said Lou Pitt, his longtime friend and manager of 46 years. “He was a national treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will endure for all generations to come. He will forever be with us.”

An imposing theatrical presence with a well-cultivated, resonant voice, that critic John Simon once observed, “in its chamois mode, can polish mirrors,” Plummer was best known for playing Captain von Trapp in the Oscar-winning musical “The Sound of Music.” He also won an Oscar in 2012 for his supporting turn in the film “Beginners,” becoming the oldest actor ever to win the Academy Award for supporting actor.

Plummer had a long and acclaimed career on stage, with two Tony Awards. In films, he was also known for “The Insider,” “12 Monkeys,” “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” and “A Beautiful Mind,” and he contributed voices for “Up,” “An American Tale” and the “Madeline” TV series.

His first serious critical acclaim came for his rebel-with-a-cause interpretation of “Henry V” at the Stratford Festival in 1956. He triumphed as Iago opposite James Earl Jones in “Othello” on Broadway in the early ’80s, as well as in “Macbeth” opposite Glenda Jackson. Other high points included “The Royal Hunt of the Sun” and a revival of Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” alongside Jason Robards. He won his first Tony Award in 1974 for the musical “Cyrano” and a second in 1996 for “Barrymore,” based on the life of actor John Barrymore.

In his later years, he scored in character and supporting roles, including his well-regarded portrayal of “60 Minutes” newsman Mike Wallace in Michael Mann’s film “The Insider” and as Franklin Delano Roosevelt in HBO telepic “Winchell,” directed by Paul Mazursky. He picked up an Emmy for miniseries “The Moneychangers” and another for his narration of the children’s special “Madeline.”

Born Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer in Toronto, he grew up in Montreal, where he attended the Jennings Private School. He made his stage debut in a 1948 production of “Cymbeline” at the Canadian Repertory Theatre in Ottawa, followed soon thereafter by a CBC television production of “Othello.” After migrating to New York in the early ’50s, he worked extensively in live television on such shows as “Kraft Television Theatre,” “Hallmark Hall of Fame,” “Producers’ Showcase,” “Appointment With Adventure” and “Omnibus.”

His Broadway debut came opposite Katharine Cornell in 1954’s “The Starcross Story.” The following year Judith Anderson was his co-star in a Parisian production of “Medea,” and he appeared as the Earl of Warwick with Julie Harris the same year in a New York production of Jean Anouilh’s “The Lark.” He also appeared in Archibald Macleish’s “J.B.,” directed by Elia Kazan.

Critics, however, first sat up and took notice when he starred in the Stratford Festival production of “Henry V” in 1956. He was the first Canadian chosen by Tyrone Guthrie to lead a production, he once told the Los Angeles Times. Before Plummer’s turn, Stratford mainly featured English actors like Alec Guinness and James Mason. “From that time on my name was above the title,” he said.

He went on to interpret such roles “Hamlet” (1957) in an acclaimed British TV production and, at Stratford, Sir Andrew Aguecheek in “Twelfth Night,” Benedick in “Much Ado About Nothing” (1958) and Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet” in 1960.

Crossing the pond, he made his London debut in “Becket” in 1961 as Henry II, a role that won him the London Evening Standard Award.

Plummer’s film debut came in Sidney Lumet’s “Stage Struck” in 1958. But 1965’s “The Sound of Music” was his most widely seen film, though he had little respect for “The Sound of Mucus,” as he called it, and his voice was dubbed for the musical numbers. He worked steadily during the period in films including “The Fall of the Roman Empire,” “The Night of the Generals” and “Inside Daisy Clover,” but dubbed most of them “awful.”

He felt somewhat better about his 1968 production of “Oedipus the King” and the film version of “The Royal Hunt of the Sun.”

By the mid-’60s, he once told Ageless magazine, he had two failed marriages behind him and his drinking was out of control. But with the help of his third wife, former British actress Elaine Taylor, he resuscitated his career. In 1973 he conceived and directed an evening of Shakespearean love themes titled “Lovers and Madmen,” appearing opposite Zoe Caldwell, and the following year picked up a Tony for the musical “Cyrano.” He scored as Rudyard Kipling in John Huston’s film “The Man Who Would Be King” (1975) and as Sherlock Holmes in the 1980 film “Murder by Decree.” During this period he won an Emmy in NBC miniseries “The Moneychangers” (1976) and starred in Paul Newman’s TV production of “The Shadow Box” in 1980. He also lent his voice to the children’s series “Madeline,” picking up another Emmy, and the animated feature “An American Tail.”

When Plummer returned to Broadway in 1982, New York Times critic Walter Kerr dubbed his Iago “quite possibly the best single Shakespearean performance to have originated on this continent in our time.” He toured the country in a production of “Macbeth” with Jackson in 1988, and showed up in character roles in such films as “Dragnet,” “12 Monkeys,” “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” (to which he lent a faint Shakespearean air) and “Dolores Claiborne.” He worked steadily in television movies as well, including such cable efforts as “Harrison Bergeron” (1995), “We the Jury” and “Skeletons.” For three years in the early ’90s, he starred in the USA network series “Counterstrike.”

Stepping into the shoes of John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson, Plummer worked with Robards in the 1994 Broadway revival of “No Man’s Land” and then two years later scored one of his biggest stage triumphs in “Barrymore,” for which he received a Tony for leading actor in a play.

The actor ended the century as TV journalist Wallace in “The Insider” with Al Pacino and Russell Crowe. Variety said, “Plummer delivers enormous satisfaction in an authoritative portrait of the celebrated newsman who is gruff, shrewd, arrogant when he needs to be and always extremely smart — except for one crucial moment.”

Plummer rang in the new millennium with a bevy of telepic appearances, including a 2001 revisiting of “On Golden Pond” on CBS in which he was paired with “Sound of Music” co-star Julie Andrews. There were also “The Dinosaur Hunter,” “Possessed,” “Leo’s Journey,” “Night Flight,” “Agent of Influence” and 2000’s “American Tragedy,” CBS’ recounting of the O.J. Simpson trial in which he played F. Lee Bailey.

His small-screen work continued throughout the decade with “Four Minutes” and Showtime’s “Our Fathers,” which probed the Catholic Church’s conspiracy of silence on sexual abuse and garnered Plummer an Emmy nom.

Throughout the decade, Plummer showed no signs of slowing down, marking his name in the rolling credits of more than 20 pics. He appeared in “Cold Creek Manor,” “National Treasure,” “Must Love Dogs,” “Syriana” and “Inside Man,” but also flexed his acting muscles in period pics, including Terrence Malick’s “The New World” and “Alexander,” in which he played the philosopher Aristotle. He dabbled in romantic dramas such as “Closing the Ring” and “The Lakeside,” and received nods from critics as he took on the lead role of Flash Madden in 2007’s “Man in the Chair.”

One of Plummer’s most memorable roles from the decade involved only his voice. In Pixar’s tear-jerking animated pic “Up,” he played Charles Muntz, a once famous explorer who turns bitter and villainous. He also contributed his voice to “My Dog Tulip” and “9.”

As the first decade of 2000 closed, Plummer appeared in “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” as the doc himself, but it was his role as author Leo Tolstoy in “The Last Station” that earned him an Oscar nomination for supporting actor. Plummer dipped his feet in other genres — including action — in pics like “Priest” and “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” but surprised and delighted critics as Hal, a cancer-stricken elderly man and father who had only recently come out of the closet, in 2010’s “Beginners,” for which he won an Oscar.

In 2015 the actor drew critical praise for his role as the long-suffering manager to the aging rock star played by Pacino in writer-director Dan Fogelman’s “Danny Collins.”

Plummer was nominated for a supporting actor Oscar for his role as J. Paul Getty in Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World.” He replaced Kevin Spacey after Spacey was accused of sexual misconduct, completely reshooting his scenes only one month before the film’s release in December of 2017. Plummer most recently appeared in Rian Johnson’s 2019 whodunit “Knives Out” and Peacock’s Canadian import series “Departure.”

He was married three times, the first to actress Tammy Grimes, the second to journalist Patricia Audrey Lewis.

Plummer is survived by third wife, actress-dancer Taylor, and a daughter with Grimes, actress Amanda Plummer.

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