Billy Drago, character actor. He did a fair amount of TV, played Frank Nitti in Brian De Palma’s “The Untouchables”, and a deputy in “Pale Rider”.
Apparently, he was also in a Mike and the Mechanics video? And a Michael Jackson video?
Obit watch: June 29, 2019.
June 29th, 2019Obit watch: June 27, 2019.
June 27th, 2019Lieutenant Colonel Robert J. Friend (USAF – ret.), one of the Tuskegee Airmen. He was the wingman for Col. Benjamin Davis Jr., the commanding officer of the 322nd Fighter Group.
He also had a distinguished post-war career, highlighted by running Project Blue Book from 1958 to 1963.
“Do I believe that we have been visited? No, I don’t believe that,” he said. “And the reason I don’t believe it is because I can’t conceive of any of the ways in which we could overcome some of these things: How much food would you have to take with you on a trip for 22 years through space? How much fuel would you need? How much oxygen or other things to sustain life do you have to have?”
But unlike many of his colleagues, he favored further research.
“I, for one, also believe that the probability of there being life elsewhere in this big cosmos is just absolutely out of this world — I think the probability is there,” he said.
According to the paper of record, there are 11 surviving Tuskegee Airmen. LTC Friend was 99.
Beth Chapman, wife of Dog the Bounty Hunter.
Edited to add: NYT obit for Beth Chapman.
Also, NYT on Etika.
Obit watch: June 26, 2019.
June 26th, 2019Steve Dunleavy, noted tabloid journalist.
Mr. Dunleavy exposed Elvis Presley’s addiction to prescription drugs in Star and in a best-selling book that rankled Presley fans; scored exclusive interviews with the mother of Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin, and Albert DeSalvo, the confessed Boston Strangler; and championed police officers, smokers and gun owners, among others.
During his run on “A Current Affair,” from 1986 to 1995, he wrestled a bear in one segment and, in another, was bitten by a witness in a rape case when he confronted her with nude photographs of her.
That book, by the way, was: Elvis: What Happened?.
…
Rod Dreher has a tribute up as well, in which he quotes Hamill (after Dunleavy’s foot was run over by a snowplow):
By way of Lawrence: Herbert Meyer.
Also by way of Lawrence: Desmond Amofah, YouTuber (under the handle “Etika”). He was 29.
His belongings were found on Manhattan Bridge on Monday. He had uploaded an eight-minute YouTube video in which he talked about suicide.
Etika was popular for playing and discussing Nintendo games on YouTube and the streaming platform Twitch.
The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside of the United States or are looking for other help, TVTropes has a surprisingly good page of additional resources.
Not quite an obit, but:
Obit watch: June 24, 2019.
June 24th, 2019Don Graham, noted Texas writer.
I’m actually pretty excited about his Giant book (though I want to watch the movie first). My mother wants to read his King Ranch book, and I’ve been trying to turn up a copy for her. And I have No Name on the Bullet, but have only read parts of it: I need to dig that out and give it a full reading.
Judith Krantz. I’m sure many people enjoyed her books.
More intersections.
June 19th, 2019Mike the Musicologist and I were talking last night about this:
#GOTD-Robert Heinlein's Rifle. Heinlein graduated in 1929 from the U.S. Naval Academy; began writing science fiction novels and eventually became known as "dean" of the genre. His bolt-action Springfield Model 1903 rifle is mentioned in many of his works. Caliber:.30-06.Date:1918 pic.twitter.com/zwxDEnQB14
— NRA Museums (@NRA_museums) June 18, 2019
We speculated NRAM might be planning a week of SF related guns: sadly, today’s entry breaks the theme.
Noted.
June 18th, 2019Tweet of the day.
June 17th, 2019Because this sits at the extremely rare intersection of gun geekery and SF geekery:
GUN OF THE DAY – Edgar Rice Burrough's Pistol. Our GOTD is a Japanese Type 94 semi-automatic pistol that was manufactured in August of 1944. During WWII, Burroughs volunteered as a war correspondent and provided regular commentary from the war in the Pacific. pic.twitter.com/xz1U98FlTB
— NRA Museums (@NRA_museums) June 17, 2019
Obit watch: June 17, 2019.
June 17th, 2019Death never takes a holiday.
Gloria Vanderbilt. I wouldn’t ordinarily post so soon after someone dies, but it’s clear the paper of record has had this one in the can for a while.
Back on the train…
June 17th, 2019I’ve returned from my travel, for the record. I may talk a little about where I was at some point in the near future, but I probably won’t be doing a full fledged after action report.
One thing I will say: I can’t recommend the Sixth Floor Museum. It is expensive (a minimum of $30 for one person if you want to park your car), a Mongolian fire drill to get in to (you have to wait in line to buy tickets, or you can order them online. But either way, you then have to wait in line until your designated admission time comes around, then you have to wait in another line to actually get in the elevators up to the sixth floor.) and there’s just really not a whole lot to it that you don’t already know or haven’t heard. Most of the stuff there (Oswald’s rifle, Zapruder’s camera) isn’t even the original items (which are stored in the National Archives) but “reproductions” or similar items made around the same time.
It might be a good place to take your kids (but if you drive, you’re going to be out a minimum of $76 for a family of four) but I was generally disappointed.
Obit watch: June 15, 2019.
June 15th, 2019Franco Zeffirelli.
Did everybody born after…1964? see “Romeo and Juliet” in high school? Or was that a limited local phenomenon?
Obit watch: June 14, 2019.
June 14th, 2019Pat Bowlen, Denver Broncos owner. Not much to say about this, other than it will be interesting to watch the ownership situation play out. NYT. ESPN.
Anthony Price, British author of espionage novels. I had not heard of him before last week, but John le Carré praises his work highly in The Pigeon Tunnel.
Obit watch: June 13, 2019.
June 13th, 2019Sylvia Miles, noted actress. She was nominated for Academy Awards for “Midnight Cowboy” and “Farewell, My Lovely”.
Gabriele Grunewald, competitive runner. She was first diagnosed with cancer in 2009, and continued her running career despite multiple recurrences.
She was 32.
NYT obit for Bill Wittliff.
Mary Max, wife of artist Peter Max.
Mr. Max, while still alive, apparently isn’t painting much these days. (I get the impression from the obit that he may have issues.) This led to an ugly legal dispute between Ms. Max (who was substantially younger than her husband) and Mr. Max’s son, who was trying to assert more control over his work.
The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside of the United States or are looking for other help, TVTropes has a surprisingly good page of additional resources.
Travel day.
June 12th, 2019This time, the trip is relatively short. (I’m actually driving.) I expect to be at my destination late morning or early afternoon, and may possibly have some time after I get there, unpack, and unwind.
Blogging will be catch as catch can through Sunday.
The vault, the vault, the vault is on fire…
June 11th, 2019I haven’t had a chance to go through all of this yet, but it looks link worthy:
“The Day the Music Burned“, about the 2008 Universal Studios fire.
…
This is the kind of telling detail I look for:
(Hattip: Hacker News on the Twitters.)
Obit watch: June 11, 2019.
June 11th, 2019Bill Wittliff, Texas writer. Among his credits: the screenplay for “Lonesome Dove”.
Bushwick Bill, Houston area rapper with the Geto Boys. NYT. This is an odd one: there were reports on Sunday that his family was denying Bushwick Bill had passed, which may have been correct at the time, but I guess his status changed at some point during the day…
Bushwick Bill had an early brush with death in 1991. High on PCP and grain alcohol, he said, he got into an altercation with his girlfriend and was shot in the right eye, a trauma he described in harrowing detail on “Ever so Clear,” from his 1992 solo debut album “Little Big Man.”
He said in interviews that he had been pronounced dead, toe-tagged and taken to the morgue. “I was actually on the cold slab,” he said in 2014. (He told differing stories about the shooting; in some accounts his mother had shot him.)
The incident was immortalized on the album cover of “We Can’t Be Stopped,” which features a photo of Bushwick Bill taken in the hospital. Flanked by Willie D and Scarface, he is shown on a stretcher, his eye blood-red, the day before he had surgery to remove it. He later said that he had been so medicated, he didn’t know the photo was being taken, and that he didn’t see the album cover until after its release.
You’ve probably seen that cover. If not, it’s in the HouChron Warning! slide show Warning!.
Noted: