Hi guys

Due to recent requests I have set up this thread to acknowledge the passing of celebrities who have made a difference in the world of show business / sports / film / stage etc.

Please feel free to post details of celebs who have recently passed, together with your photographs and past successes if you wish to.

Ian

Actor: Paul Gleason,

Check out this: http://www.absolute-fan.com/mboard/view ... hp?t=32324

Desmond Dekker





http://www.nme.com/news/desmond-dekker/23170

Hi guys

Thanks for posting.

Let's hope we don't have to add any more too soon

Ian

Billy Preston died Tuesday May 6, 2006 at age 59. He was the keyboardist who had hit singles that included "Outta Space" and "Nothing From Nothing."

Here is some info about Mr Preston: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5054074.stm

Ian

I know this was a long time ago River Phoenix died...but I still think that he should be remembered.

River Phoenix
1970-1993



Phoenix managed to walk the fine line between respected actor and Hollywood heart-throb, ensuring the news of death was met with stunned disbelief by millions.

He died of a drugs overdose outside Johnny Depp's Los Angeles club the Viper Rooms, and the global headlines he hit ensured Phoenix's place in the pantheon of movie legends who died young.

The only indicator of how far his star could have shone comes from his contemporaries such as Keanu Reeves, Christian Slater and Depp, all still A-list movies stars commanding mega bucks.



A few minutes before 1am (Halloween morning), River had been in the bathroom doing
drugs with some drug dealer friends and someone offered him a snort of high-grade Persian Brown.
He was told it would make him feel fabulous.
As soon as he snorted it he started trembling and shaking in front of the sink,
screamed at his friend and then vomited.
Someone tried to help by splashing cold water on his face and then gave him a Valium.
(Nothing helps someone O.D.ing then to give them more drugs.)
He staggered back into the bar and over to actress Samantha Mathis and his sister Rain.
He complained he could not breathe and briefly passed out.
When he came to, he asked Mathis to take him outside.
Mathis first called River's friend and assistant Abby, then Mathis and River's brother Joaquin took him outside.
River then collapsed on the sidewalk.



After that he started going into seizures and had three before a photographer,Ron Davis,
went to call 911 at the nearby payphone, and so did Joaquin.
"He looked like a fish out of water," said Ron Davis, who was standing outside the club.
He was "thrashing spasmodically, his head flopping from side to side, arms flailing wildly" .
Rain had since come out and thrown herself on River to attempt to stop the seizures.
It seems after 8 minutes of seizures they stopped and River was still.
At which point Joaquin said he was not breathing.
At 1:14 a.m. he was in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived and Paramedic ,
Ray Ribar of the LA County Fire Department began to administer CPR.
They rushed him to Cedars Sinai Medical Center where they arrived at 1:34.
When they got there, his skin was dark blue, but his body was still warm.
The ER physicians did everything to revive him, even inserting a pacemaker.
He was pronounced dead at 1:51 am.

He was 23 years old.



River was placed in a blue coffin, and on November 4,
sixty mourners showed up at Milam Funeral Home for the viewing.
His usual blonde hair was dyed black for the film he was working on.

He was dressed in a black t-shirt with the logo of his band,
Aleka's Attic on it. His mother put a single carnation in the coffin.
As mourners passed the coffin, several placed things like notes and necklaces in the casket.

River was cremated, and his ashes were scattered over the family ranch, in Florida.
There was a memorial service held on the Paramount Lot on November 18th.
Sidney Poitier, Rob Reiner, Richard Benjamin, John Boorman, Christine Lahti,
Peter Bogdanovich and River's mother, Heart, attended it.



RIP River Phoenix

Thanks for posting celebrityfan

River was a fantastic actor and will continue to be sorely missed

RIP

Ian

Eddie Guerrero... He passed away this year, it is a terrible loss for all the wrestling world... He was only 38 years old...

[']['][']





John Tenta... He passed away last week... He was fighting with cancer, and lost... His nickname was Earthquake, he was 42 years old...

[']['][']

Edward J. Yates, who directed "American Bandstand" for 17 years, from a fledgling local TV show to a national institution that made Dick Clark a star, has died at age 87.

He died Friday at Fair Oaks nursing home in Media, where he had been for two months, Donohue Funeral Home said in a statement.

In October 1952, Yates volunteered to direct "Bandstand," a new show on Philadelphia's WFIL-TV. The show, featuring local teens dancing to the latest hits, debuted with Bob Horn as announcer and took off after Dick Clark, already a radio veteran at age 26, took over in 1956.

It was broadcast live in its early years, even after it became part of the ABC network's weekday afternoon lineup in 1957 as "American Bandstand." Yates pulled records, directed the cameras, queued the commercials and communicated with Clark.


"Ed was an extraordinary director. ... He managed to grab every exciting moment on 'American Bandstand,'" Clark told The Philadelphia Inquirer in a telephone interview Monday. "The pictures he created influenced a whole generation of young people across America."

As the show became a national hit, Clark became a household name and the mostly working-class teens who were regulars on the show were bombarded with fan mail.

Fans jammed the sidewalks outside the West Philadelphia studio to win a spot in the bleachers. Once inside, they hoped to catch the eye of a regular and get to dance on the show.

In 1964, Clark moved the show to Los Angeles, taking Yates with him.

Yates retired from "American Bandstand" in 1969, and moved his family to West Chester in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Yates became a still photographer after graduating from high school in 1936. After serving in World War II, he got a job as a boom operator at WFIL. He was later promoted to cameraman and earned a bachelor's degree in communications in 1950 from the University of Pennsylvania.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Richard Stahl, an actor whose more than 40-year career stretched from New York theater to film and television comedies such as "Laverne and Shirley," has died. He was 74.

Stahl died Sunday at the Motion Picture and Television Fund's health center in Woodland Hills after a 10-year battle with Parkinson's disease, his wife, actress Kathryn Ish, said Wednesday.

"He had been declining for some time now," she said.

Born in Detroit, Stahl did magic tricks as a boy and moved to California as a performer at age 15, Ish said. He served in the Army during the Korean War, later graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.


Ish and Stahl were both off Broadway theater actors when they met in 1959. They married later that year.

In the 1960s, the pair moved to San Francisco and joined improv comedy group The Committee, Ish said. They settled in Santa Barbara in 1975.

Stahl's film credits include 1979's "Five Easy Pieces," Mel Brooks' 1977 spoof "High Anxiety," 1980's "9 to 5" and 1996's "Ghosts of Mississippi."

He appeared on such TV shows as "Laverne and Shirley,""The Odd Couple," and "Barney Miller," and held a regular stint on 1980s sitcom "It's A Living."

"He was a funny guy, he worked in comedy all his life," Ish said.

Stahl is survived by Ish, their daughter Allegra and son Oliver.

Ronnie Barker


Ronnie on left, Richard Beckinsale (1947-1979) on right.

It was a while back now, but the great man deserves a mention:

TV comedy actor Ronnie Barker, who starred in Porridge and The Two Ronnies, has died aged 76.
One of the most loved and respected comedy performers of his generation, he was best known as one half of a double act with Ronnie Corbett.

But he also proved himself as an outstanding sitcom actor and script writer, winning four Bafta TV awards.

Corbett led the tributes saying: "Ronnie was pure gold in triplicate - as a performer, a writer and a friend."

He went on: "We worked together since 1965 and we never had a cross word.

"It was 40 years of harmonious joy, nothing but an absolute pleasure. I will miss him terribly."

David Jason, Barker's co-star for many years in Open All Hours, said: "He was a very dear friend and someone for whom I had the greatest respect.
"Working with Ronnie was always a joy and were without doubt some of the best years of my career. The world of entertainment has lost a huge talent."

Barker's agent said the actor died peacefully on Monday with his wife Joy by his side, after a long period of heart trouble.

John Cleese, who began his career with Barker on The Frost Report, said he was a "warm, friendly and encouraging presence" and "a great comic actor to learn from".

Cleese's Monty Python colleague Michael Palin said: "I can't think of anyone who knew how to play comedy better than Ronnie Barker and I count myself enormously fortunate to have known and worked with him."

Veteran comedian Eric Sykes said: "It's a very sad day. I've always admired him. Everything he did had a very evocative ring, of something great."

Former Conservative prime minister John Major added: "Ronnie Barker will forever be remembered as one of the great comic actors."

Last year Barker was awarded a lifetime achievement Bafta for his TV work.

Barker starred in two of the most popular sitcoms in BBC history - Porridge and Open All Hours, creating two classic characters, the laconic inmate Fletcher and the stuttering shopkeeper Arkwright.

At the peak of his career Barker, along with Corbett, entertained 17 million people every Saturday night with The Two Ronnies, which ran for 15 years delivering comic sketches, funny songs and old-fashioned tall tales.

Michael Hurll, producer of The Two Ronnies, said: "We will never see his like again."

The BBC head of comedy Jon Plowman said Barker was "just a genius".

Barker leaves his wife and three children, actress Charlotte Barker, the actor Adam Barker and Larry Barker.

Aaron Spelling



TV mogul Aaron Spelling, whose unparalleled string of hits ran from The Mod Squad in the '60s to today's 7th Heaven, died in his mansion near Beverly Hills on Friday. He was 83.

In his long career, Spelling produced some 200 shows, including Starsky and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, The Love Boat, Vegas, Hart to Hart, Dynasty, T.J. Hooker, Fantasy Island, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Charmed.

RIP Aaron Spelling, You will be missed

Chrissy

The scrappy dog known as Eddie on TV's "Frasier" has died. The 16-year-old Jack Russell terrier, whose real name was Moose, passed away of old age Thursday at the Los Angeles home of trainer Mathilde Halberg, Halberg told People magazine.

The canine character Eddie drove Kelsey Grammer's lead character crazy for 10 years on the show.

It wasn't all acting on Moose's part, though. He was naturally "extremely mischievous," Halberg said.

His contribution to the show's and Grammer's success was publicly noted by the actor when he accepted a 1994 Emmy for best actor in a comedy.

"Most important, Moose, this is for you," Grammer added good naturedly.

Moose, who also played the older dog Skip in the 2000 film "My Dog Skip," was retired in recent years

Thanks for your post starreyes

Who said this section was only for humans?

Seriously, I loved the sitcom Frasier. They are re-running it daily back from ep.1 in the UK (Channel 4) at the moment (back when Kelsey Grammer had hair - of sorts!)

Sad news to hear that Moose had died, but he had a good innings (as we say in the UK!!) and lived to the ripe old age of 16 (112 in human years!!!!)

Story:- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5124104.stm



Ian