Departed During 2022

[llondel]

Bamber Gascoigne... University Challenge host dies aged 87.

Away from quiz shows, he wrote the novel Murgatroyd's Empire in 1972, and later hosted the documentary series The Christians in 1977. He was also part of Victorian Values in 1987 and The Great Moghuls in 1992.

The former host of University Challenge Bamber Gascoigne has died aged 87, his representative has said.

The presenter, who was the original quizmaster on the BBC show from 1962 to 1987, died at home after a short illness.

In 2014, Gascoigne inherited a 14th century Surrey estate, West Horsley Place, from his aunt the Duchess of Roxburghe, where he later built an opera house.

https://news.sky.com/story/bamber-gasco ... sf-twitter

Forever immortalised in the Young Ones.

I remember we did a skit on it for a school thing, I got to play Bamber Gasmeter and ask the questions.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Funk singer Betty Davis has died, aged 77.

The singer’s friend, Danielle Maggio, confirmed the news to Rolling Stone on Wednesday (9 February).

Davis, who was the ex-wife of jazz singer Miles Davis, died of natural causes.

The singer was considered an icon of the funk genre, and was best known for hits including “Get Ready for Betty”, “It’s My Life” and “If I’m in Luck I Might Get Picked Up”.

She also wrote songs for other artists, including the Chamber Brothers hit “Uptown (to Harlem)”.

The majority of Davis’ songs were released between 1964 and 1975. Her self-titled debut album arrived in 1973, with two more –They Say I’m Different and Nasty Gal –following in 1974 and 1975, respectively.

She recorded most of her music between 1964 and 1975, and is considered to have been a trailblazer who was under-appreciated at the time.

Davis was known for her provocative lyrics, which were so controversial when she wrote them that she was banned from performing her songs on television in the US.

After quitting the music industry in 1979, Davis moved to Pittsburgh and, in 2018, said of her retirement to the New York Times: “When I was told that it was over, I just accepted it. And nobody else was knocking at my door.”

Davis met Miles when she was a model in 1966. They married two years later, but separated the following year. Miles accused Davis of having an affair with Jimi Hendrix, which Davis always denied.

Her life was explored in the 2017 documentary Betty: They Say I’m Different.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 11615.html

[TheGreenGoblin]

King Crimson and Foreigner co-founder dies age 75.

Ian McDonald, a co-founder of two era-defining groups in prog band King Crimson and rock outfit Foreigner, has died age 75.

A representative said he had “passed away peacefully on 9 February in his home in New York City, surrounded by his family”. No cause of death was disclosed.

McDonald was part of the original lineup of King Crimson, who formed in 1967 in Dorset. A multi-instrumentalist, McDonald became the band’s primary composer. After a breakout support slot with the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, London, on 5 July 1969, they released their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, in October of the same year.

It received critical acclaim and is now considered a classic. Pete Townshend of the Who called it an “uncanny masterpiece”. And Kanye West sampled McDonald’s instantly recognisable, swaggering saxophone from the song 21st Century Schizoid Man – originally recorded in a single take – on his 2010 single Power.

McDonald told Ultimate Classic Rock that he wasn’t surprised the album had held up for more than 50 years. “When we made it – and I was basically at the forefront of the production – I wanted to make sure everything that went into the record would bear repeated listening and hopefully stand the test of time.”

The band’s original lineup went their separate ways at the end of 1969, with McDonald and drummer Michael Giles diverging from the darker styles preferred by guitarist Robert Fripp. The departing pair released one album together, 1970’s McDonald and Giles, which reflected their poppier approach to prog.

McDonald briefly rejoined King Crimson in 1974 before Fripp put the band on hiatus – though he would play with Fripp again in the 50-strong prog-jazz group Centipede, led by British free jazz pianist Keith Tippett. In 2002, former members of King Crimson, minus Fripp, reformed as the 21st Century Schizoid Band.

McDonald formed Foreigner in 1976, alongside British guitarist Mick Jones (not the Clash guitarist) and US singer Lou Gramm. He appeared on the first three of their four consecutive five-times platinum-certified albums, but was sacked in 1980 as Jones sought greater control over the group.

“I wouldn’t have left,” McDonald told Big Bang magazine. “I loved the group, it was not my decision.” However, he occasionally played with the band at later reunion shows.

Between King Crimson and Foreigner, McDonald appeared on four of the biggest-selling albums of the period from 1969-79.

As a session musician, he performed on T-Rex’s 1971 single Get It On. He also collaborated with Fairport Convention co-founder Judy Dyble (who was also fleetingly a member of pre-fame King Crimson), Steve Hackett and Asia.

McDonald was born in 1946 in Osterley, Middlesex. He played guitar as a teenager and developed his musicianship while serving five years in the British army as a bandsman, where he learned clarinet, flute, saxophone and musical notation. His love of big band jazz evolved into a love of rock’n’roll, which, he told Billboard magazine in 2017, “didn’t seem like a great leap to me. There was a great energy there that appealed to me”.

Reflecting on his career to Billboard, he said: “I have trouble processing time in terms of years and weeks and months. I mean, it’s 40 years for Foreigner, almost 50 years for King Crimson – but it feels like milliseconds. It’s a lot of good work, though.”

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/ ... ies-age-75

[FD2]

Air Vice-Marshal Sir Erik Bennett, chief of the Omani Air Force who forged close ties between the strategically vital Gulf state and the UK

Under Bennett’s astute and dynamic leadership, the air force of Oman had grown into one of the most formidable in the region
By Telegraph Obituaries 13 February 2022 • 9:02pm


Air Vice-Marshal Sir Erik Bennett, who has died in Oman aged 95, was an experienced RAF fighter pilot when, in 1974, he became the Commander of the Sultan of Oman’s Air Force (SOAF), a post he held for the next 16 years, after which he remained a close adviser to Sultan Qaboos and a highly influential figure in Anglo-Omani relations – “the chief chosen Brit”, in the words of the former minister for defence procurement, Jonathan Aitken.

When Sultan Qaboos bin Said ascended to the Omani throne after overthrowing his father in a coup in 1970, he began implementing a policy of modernisation, bringing social, educational and military reforms including the creation of an autonomous air force.

Julian Amery, a minister at the Foreign Office, was a friend of King Hussein of Jordan, and well versed in the ways of the Middle East. He had spotted Bennett, who had served in the region on a fighter squadron and later advised the Royal Jordanian Air Force. Amery recommended Bennett to the young Sultan Qaboos as the man to set up an air force for Oman, a country whose territory controls the southern shore of the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz, gateway to the Persian Gulf.

Bennett’s arrival in November 1974, to take up the post with the SOAF, coincided with the late stages of the Dhofar rebellion in the south-west of Oman. Bennett immediately recognised that while the British Strikemaster light strike aircraft had performed well in operations – typically firing rockets from its wings – against the Marxist-inspired insurgents, there was a need to acquire aircraft that could carry a wider variety of weapons.

He was able to negotiate the transfer of 16 surplus Hunters – fast, manouevrable, low-level fighters that could carry rockets or bombs mounted on the wings – from the Royal Jordanian Air Force. He also acquired several ex-RAF aircraft to create a modern and effective fighter ground-attack force for the Sultan.

[PHXPhlyer]

Ivan Reitman, producer, 'Ghostbusters' director, dies at 75
Ivan Reitman’s big break came with the raucous, college fraternity sendup “National Lampoon’s Animal House."

https://www.12news.com/article/news/nat ... 56c9d63dfe

Ivan Reitman, the influential filmmaker and producer behind beloved comedies from “Animal House” to “Ghostbusters,” has died. He was 75.

Reitman passed away peacefully in his sleep Saturday night at his home in Montecito, Calif., his family told The Associated Press.

“Our family is grieving the unexpected loss of a husband, father, and grandfather who taught us to always seek the magic in life,” children Jason Reitman, Catherine Reitman and Caroline Reitman said in a joint statement. “We take comfort that his work as a filmmaker brought laughter and happiness to countless others around the world. While we mourn privately, we hope those who knew him through his films will remember him always.”

Known for big, bawdy comedies that caught the spirit of their time, Reitman’s big break came with the raucous, college fraternity sendup “National Lampoon’s Animal House,” which he produced. He directed Bill Murray in his first starring role in “Meatballs” and then again in “Stripes,” but his most significant success came with 1984’s “Ghostbusters.”


Not only did the irreverent supernatural comedy starring Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis gross nearly $300 million worldwide, it earned two Oscar nominations, spawned a veritable franchise, including spinoffs, television shows and a new movie, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” that opened this last year which his son filmmaker Jason Reitman directed.

Among other notable films he directed are “Twins,” “Kindergarten Cop,” “Dave,” “Junior” and “Six Days, Seven Nights.” He also produced “Beethoven,” “Old School” and “EuroTrip,” and many others, including several for his son, filmmaker Jason Reitman.

He was born in Komarmo, Czechoslovakia, in 1946 where his father owned the country’s biggest vinegar factory. When the communists began imprisoning capitalists after the war, the Reitmans decided to escape, when Ivan Reitman was only 4. They traveled in the nailed-down hold of a barge headed for Vienna.

The Reitmans joined a relative in Toronto, where Ivan displayed his show biz inclinations: starting a puppet theater, entertaining at summer camps, playing coffee houses with a folk music group. He studied music and drama at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., and began making movie shorts.

PP

[TheGreenGoblin]

Probably the last decent Republican has just died!

Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

There are a number of mechanical devices which increase sexual arousal, particularly in women. Chief among these is the Mercedes-Benz 380SL convertible.

P. J. O'Rourke

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... r-humorist

The conservative writer and humorist PJ O’Rourke, whose acerbic wit and writings often won admiration on both sides of America’s political divide, has died, media reports and colleagues said. He was 74 years old.

Peter Sagal, O’Rourke’s colleague and host of the NPR radio show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, said on Twitter: “I’m afraid it’s true. Our panelist and my dear friend PJ O’Rourke has passed away.”

The CNN host Jake Tapper reported that O’Rourke had died of cancer. “Our dear friend and cherished Grove Atlantic author P.J O’Rourke passed away this morning from complications of lung cancer,” Tapper quoted O’Rourke’s publisher as saying.


O’Rourke was one of the most quoted writers in America, dissecting US politics and culture with a withering disdain and a powerful line in put-downs – often laced with a warm, self-deprecating humanity.

He held a variety of roles that showcased his writing, commentary and reportage – and most importantly his humor. They included stints as editor in chief of National Lampoon and Rolling Stone’s foreign affairs desk chief.

His targets featured government and politicians in works like Parliament of Whores and Don’t Vote: It Just Encourages the Bastards but also ranged towards foreign reporting such as his war correspondent book Holidays in Hell. Nearly all his work was laced with tales from his own life and joy of hard partying, at least in his early writing.

Though he was notably – and briefly – a hippy in the late 196os and early 1970s O’Rourke found his home on the right of the political spectrum, though far from the conservative social values that many in the Republican party embraced. One of his best-known works was titled Republican Party Reptile: The Confessions, Adventures, Essays and Outrages of PJ O’Rourke.

Though O’Rourke often reserved his sharpest barbs for the left and Democrats, he admitted that in 2016’s election he would be supporting Hillary Clinton over the Republican nominee, Donald Trump. “She’s wrong about absolutely everything, but she’s wrong within normal parameters,” he said.

O’Rourke was from Toledo, Ohio, born the son of a car salesman. He went to university in Ohio and, later, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. He was married twice, latterly moving to New Hampshire with his second spouse, Tina Mallon, with whom he had three children.

Numerous friends and former colleagues paid tribute to him.

“PJ was special. When he came by the office, the fun and wit went up a notch, sparks were in the air, and we all felt a certain joie de vivre. I cherish the memories,” wrote the conservative writer Bill Kristol of a shared time at the rightwing the Weekly Standard.

“PJ O’Rourke was one of the nicest writers I ever had the pleasure of meeting and drinking and (very rarely) corresponding with. No reason whatsoever for him to be decent to some junior editor at one of the many outlets he wrote for, and yet. What a loss,” posted Sunny Bunch, culture editor at the Bulwark.

[PHXPhlyer]

Article with more great quotes.

P.J. O'Rourke, influential satirist and commentator, dies at 74
O'Rourke, a journalist and author who became known for his work at National Lampoon in the '70s, died of complications from lung cancer.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pj ... -rcna16378

P.J. O'Rourke, an influential baby boomer satirist and commentator who defied the counterculture's leftward politics, died Tuesday morning. He was 74.

Deb Seager, vice president and spokeswoman at his publisher, Grove Atlantic, confirmed O'Rourke's passing in a statement.

"Our dear friend and cherished Grove Atlantic author P. J. O’Rourke passed away this morning from complications of lung cancer," she said.

She noted his accomplishments: "A journalist and political satirist, O’Rourke wrote over twenty books on subjects as diverse as politics, cars, etiquette, and economics, including his two #1 New York Times Bestsellers, 'Parliament of Whores' and 'Give War a Chance.'"

Morgan Entrekin, CEO and Publisher of Grove Atlantic, said, “P. J. was one of the major voices of his generation.”

The Ohio-born writer, educated at his home state's Miami University and, as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, at Johns Hopkins in Maryland, worked at small newspapers in Baltimore and New York before becoming known for his work as editor-in-chief of the National Lampoon in the 1970s.

He emerged as a counterculture-wary hell-raiser inspired by gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson, whom he called a friend and "the best writer of the late 20th century."

"I came to Hunter fairly late," he said in an oral history of Thompson. "[Tom] Wolfe was the first of the New Journalists that I read, and it was 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.' I admired it enormously for its writing, but actually being a hippie, I considered it fairly inaccurate. ... I didn't become a Hunter fan until some time in the late '70s."

O'Rourke was a known drinker, and he was widely quoted as saying, "No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity."

He would go on to work for Rolling Stone and the Atlantic Monthly before contributing to the pages of Automobile Magazine, Esquire, Vanity Fair, Car and Driver, the Daily Beast and the Weekly Standard.

O’Rourke worked at times in Hollywood, having written the script for Rodney Dangerfield’s “Easy Money" and appearing as himself on the HBO series "True Blood."

In his 1991 book "Parliament of Whores," O'Rourke detailed his disdain for modern politics: "The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it."

He said he considered himself to be a libertarian and his work often defied the leftward tilt of his generation, reflecting the growing conservatism of some aging baby boomers.

He was skeptical of the presidency of Barack Obama, dismissing it as "the Carter administration in better sweaters," and he sympathized with the anti-government Tea Party movement of the early 2010s.

"Fiscal conservatism is just an easy way to express something that is a bit more difficult, which is that the size and scope of government, and really the size and scope of politics in our lives, has grown uncomfortable, unwieldy, intrusive and inefficient," he told the Guardian.


In that 2010 interview, The Guardian called him “the rightwinger it’s OK for lefties to like,” but O'Rourke characteristically refused easy categorization and would go on to be a critic of President Donald Trump.

He announced in 2016 he would support Hillary Clinton in the presidential election and called Trump "unstable" and "dangerous" in a 2020 interview.

The Los Angeles Times called him “button-down gonzo” in a feature that described his physical appearance as “Dan Quayle with a bad hangover.”

O'Rourke was the grandson of Ohio Buick dealers and a certified car aficionado. He often took his reporting and writing skills to top auto publications with readership that didn't always know he was a man of letters, unless they were BMW.

In his 2009 book "Driving Like Crazy," O'Rourke described the impact of the automobile on America:

"Cars let us out of the barn and, while they were at it, destroyed the American nuclear family," he wrote. "As anyone who has had an American nuclear family can tell you, this was a relief to all concerned."

O’Rourke was also a longtime guest on MSNBC, including an appearance where he criticized Trump for his administration’s response to 2017’s Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

"You just stand up there and you lie — 'We did a great job,'" he said. "We did a terrible job."

In his later years, he was the H.L. Mencken Research Fellow at the Cato Institute and a regular panelist on NPR’s "Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me."

Survivors include his wife, Tina O’Rourke, and three children.

I had heard of him but not read any of his stuff.
I shall try to remedy that.

PP

[Seenenough]

Maybe I should also start to copy and paste my local news papers' obituary columns on this thread as it seems to me that some here are obsessed with telling us of someone or other that none of us have ever heard of, has died.

[PHXPhlyer]

Maybe I should also start to copy and paste my local news papers obituary columns on this thread as it seems to me that some here are obsessed with telling us of people that none of us have ever heard of has died.

You must have misses a detail in my post.
I said that I had heard of him.

PP

[Seenenough]

Maybe I should also start to copy and paste my local news papers obituary columns on this thread as it seems to me that some here are obsessed with telling us of people that none of us have ever heard of has died.

You must have misses a detail in my post.
I said that I had heard of him.

PP

correction...... people that many of us have never heard of have.......

[TheGreenGoblin]

Maybe I should also start to copy and paste my local news papers' obituary columns on this thread as it seems to me that some here are obsessed with telling us of someone or other that none of us have ever heard of, has died.

Is your lumbago playing you up again! If you have nothing better to do, go and read some PJ O'Rourke and stop parading your ignorance here.

[prospector]

" stop parading your ignorance here" Why?? you do!

[Seenenough]

Maybe I should also start to copy and paste my local news papers' obituary columns on this thread as it seems to me that some here are obsessed with telling us of someone or other that none of us have ever heard of, has died.

Is your lumbago playing you up again! If you have nothing better to do, go and read some PJ O'Rourke and stop parading your ignorance here.

How silly was I not remember, Gob ,that you are the most widely read scholar,doyen and mensch of all matters discussed in these hallowed halls.

I would bet that the most populous initial notifier of people (many of whom lots of us have never heard of)who recently died is none other that you when you have a little bit if time available outside of posting music videos of artists and bands that we have not heard before either.

[FD2]

Take a deep breath, 'gather' as they say in the acting classes. Try not looking at the departed thread.

[Seenenough]

NBC just announced that Tony Pace died,6 days ago

[PHXPhlyer]

Thanks Seen
Missed him.

PP

[TheGreenGoblin]

Maybe I should also start to copy and paste my local news papers' obituary columns on this thread as it seems to me that some here are obsessed with telling us of someone or other that none of us have ever heard of, has died.

Is your lumbago playing you up again! If you have nothing better to do, go and read some PJ O'Rourke and stop parading your ignorance here.

How silly was I not remember, Gob ,that you are the most widely read scholar,doyen and mensch of all matters discussed in these hallowed halls.

I would bet that the most populous initial notifier of people (many of whom lots of us have never heard of)who recently died is none other that you when you have a little bit if time available outside of posting music videos of artists and bands that we have not heard before either.

It is not my fault that your functional illiteracy, and tin ear, is matched by some sort of large chip on your shoulder and your predilection to go around making inane comments about posters who you happen to have developed a "thing" about . Embrace the world, and enjoy life, before you become like prospector who, by all accounts, is half dead, above the neck anyway. Nuff said (as they say in the US comics) and back to the dearest departed, which is, after all, what this thread is all about!

[TheGreenGoblin]

NBC just announced that Tony Pace died,6 days ago

Requiescat in pace!

[Ex-Ascot]

Is your lumbago playing you up again! If you have nothing better to do, go and read some PJ O'Rourke and stop parading your ignorance here.

How silly was I not remember, Gob ,that you are the most widely read scholar,doyen and mensch of all matters discussed in these hallowed halls.

I would bet that the most populous initial notifier of people (many of whom lots of us have never heard of)who recently died is none other that you when you have a little bit if time available outside of posting music videos of artists and bands that we have not heard before either.

It is not my fault that your functional illiteracy, and tin ear, is matched by some sort of large chip on your shoulder and your predilection to go around making inane comments about posters who you happen to have developed a "thing" about . Embrace the world, and enjoy life, before you become like prospector who, by all accounts, is half dead, above the neck anyway. Nuff said (as they say in the US comics) and back to the dearest departed, which is, after all, what this thread is all about!

Well said my friend

[PHXPhlyer]

Gail Halvorsen, U.S. airman and 'Candy Bomber' in Berlin Airlift, dies at 101
Halvorsen died Wednesday surrounded by loved ones after a brief illness. He became famous for delivering chocolates and gum to children in West Berlin during the Cold War.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ga ... -rcna16774

Gail Halvorsen, a former U.S. airman known as the “Candy Bomber” for delivering sweets to children during the Berlin Airlift, died on Wednesday at the age of 101.

The Gail S. Halvorsen Aviation Education Foundation confirmed the veteran's death in a statement on Thursday.

The foundation said he passed away peacefully and surrounded by family at the Utah Valley Hospital following a brief illness.

Halvorsen gained his "Candy Bomber" moniker during the 15-month Berlin Airlift after World War II that saw western allies drop essential supplies into West Berlin after it was blockaded by the Soviet Union.

The airman had befriended a group of German children and promised to deliver them candy — a vow he made good on.


Attaching chocolates and gum to makeshift parachutes, Halvorsen started dropping sweets from his plane in hopes that they would end up in the hands of children on the ground.

Halvorsen described the experience himself in past quotes shared by the foundation, saying he had met about "30 kids at the barbed wire fence at Tempelhof in Berlin" one day in July 1948.

He said that he had two sticks of gum on him at the time and decided to break them in two and pass them through the fence.

"The result was unbelievable. Those with the gum tore off strips of the wrapper and gave them to the others. Those with the strips put them to their noses and smelled the tiny fragrance. The expression of pleasure was unmeasurable," he said.

“I was so moved by what I saw and their incredible restraint that I promised them I would drop enough gum for each of them the next day as I came over their heads to land," he said, adding that "they would know my plane because I would wiggle the wings as I came over the airport.”

Halvorsen's actions laid the groundwork for what would come to be known as "Operation Little Vittles," an effort to continue dropping candy to German children during the Berlin Airlift from 1948 to 1948.

Tributes poured in following his death.

The governor of Utah, where the former airman spent much of his youth and retirement, remembered him as a hero.


"I don't know if there are any better human beings on this planet and it's sad in so many ways," Gov. Spencer Cox said during a news conference.

Still, he said Halvorsen "lived an amazing life. I know he's happy right now. I know he's up there handing out candy behind the pearly gates somewhere."

The German Embassy in the United States also paid tribute to the former airman, writing in a tweet: "Thank you for your kindness, Colonel."


Sharing photos from an interview with Halvorsen from just a few days ago, the foundation said in a Facebook post that the former U.S. airman had "wanted to remind all of us to have gratitude" in his final days.

"And gratitude we have in our hearts today for the joy of knowing Gail and having him in our lives," it said.

"We shall miss him dearly, but sweet memories shall ever be with us to soften our hearts and encourage us to be better, to do good with whatever small means we have, and to encourage others to bring sweetness to the world," the foundation said.

PP