Departed During 2023

[OneHungLow]

Sorry to hear about Jani Allan known to Tertius Myburgh, the then editor of the SA Sunday Times as his misguided missile.

https://www.capetalk.co.za/articles/480 ... an-s-death

[PHXPhlyer]

Paul Reubens, actor best known as Pee-wee Herman, dies at 70
He rose to fame in the 1980s playing the whimsical, child-like character on TV and in movies.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pa ... -rcna97343

Actor Paul Reubens, who came to fame in the 1980s as children's TV star Pee-wee Herman, has died years after a cancer diagnosis, his team said Monday.

He was 70.

"Last night we said farewell to Paul Reubens, an iconic American actor, comedian, writer and producer whose beloved character Pee-wee Herman delighted generations of children and adults with his positivity, whimsy and belief in the importance of kindness," according to a statement posted to his Facebook.

"Paul bravely and privately fought cancer for years with his trademark tenacity and wit. A gifted and prolific talent, he will forever live in the comedy pantheon and in our hearts as a treasured friend and man of remarkable character and generosity of spirit."

PP

[OneHungLow]

Paul Reubens got himself into a whole bundle of trouble down there in Sarasota Florida at one stage, and then again later, as the cops seemed to have him in their scopes and all that kind of scuppered his career to an extent, for a while!

No doubt, aided by a good publicist, he rode the fickle tide of public opprobrium and recovered some of his former lustre. For all the brouhaha, he seemed like a nice guy at heart.

For many of his fans, it was Paul Rubens' mug shot that was so disturbing. Unlike his clean-cut alter ego who always wore a bow tie and suit, in the photos, Reubens had long hair, a shaggy goatee, and was wearing a T-shirt. The backlash to his career came swiftly. CBS, which had already pulled the plug on the television show, didn't air the final episodes, according to The New York Times. Toys-R-Us removed its Pee-wee Herman dolls off its shelves and Disney-MGM Studios cut a prerecorded Pee-wee Herman segment from its tours, per Entertainment Weekly.

Reubens became the butt of late-night television hosts, comedians, and others, but many of his fans rallied around him. A little more than three months later, Reubens appeared in Sarasota County Court and pleaded no contest to the charges in a plea deal involving a small fine and community service. He would go on to make guest appearances in several films and television shows in the coming decades before his death on July 30, 2023, per Today.

Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1353560/arrest-p ... ee-herman/



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Reubens

[PHXPhlyer]

John Gosling, keyboardist for the Kinks, dies at 75
Gosling joined the Kinks in 1970 and stayed in the band until 1978. He appeared on 10 albums and embellished such hits as “Lola” and “Celluloid Heroes.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/jo ... -rcna98522

John Gosling, a former keyboard player for the Kinks, has died. He was 75.

Gosling joined the Kinks in 1970 and stayed in the band until 1978. He appeared on 10 albums and embellished such hits as “Lola” and “Celluloid Heroes.”

The news was announced in a statement on the band’s official social media page Friday morning: “We are deeply saddened by the news of the passing of John Gosling. We are sending our condolences to John’s wife and family.”

The Kinks’ lead singer Ray Davies paid tribute to his former bandmate, saying: “Condolences to his wife, Theresa, and family. Rest in peace dearest John.”

Added lead guitarist Dave Davies, “‘I’m dismayed deeply upset by John Gosling’s passing… He has been a friend and important contributor to the Kinks music during his time with us. Deepest sympathies to his wife and family. I will hold deep affection and love for him in my heart always. Great musician and a great man.”

Drummer Mick Avory also paid tribute to Gosling. “Today we lost a dear friend and colleague, he was a great musician and had a fantastic sense of humour… Which made him a popular member of the band, he leaves us with some happy memories. God Bless him.”

Prior to Ian Gibbons, who joined the band in 1979, Gordon Edwards of Pretty Things took over from Gosling on keyboards upon his departure from the group.

Gosling became a founding member of the Kast Off Kinks in 1994 — which includes former Avory, John Dalton and Jim Rodford — and remained in the band until his retirement in 2008.

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

William Friedkin, director of 'The Exorcist' and 'The French Connection,' dies at 87
He was synonymous with the New Hollywood era of the late 1960s and ‘70s, when young filmmakers wrested creative control from studio suits.

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop ... -rcna98588

William Friedkin, the maverick film director who helped revolutionize 1970s Hollywood with the electrifying, era-defining classics “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist,” died Monday, a representative from his office told the Associated Press.

He was 87. The former Paramount Pictures head Sherry Lansing, Friedkin's wife, confirmed his death to other news outlets.

Friedkin was synonymous with the New Hollywood era of the late 1960s and ‘70s, when risk-taking young filmmakers wrested creative control from studio suits and shook up the system. He was known for injecting familiar genres with live-wire energy and edge.

Friedkin won an Academy Award for directing “The French Connection,” a white-knuckle 1971 crime thriller about a brash New York City narcotics detective played by Gene Hackman. The film, anchored by a deliriously high-octane car chase, also won Oscars for best picture and best adapted screenplay.

In an interview with NBC News in 2021, Friedkin said he came to believe he “took too many chances” in filming that famous car chase. “The fact that nobody got hurt is a miracle,” he said. “The fact that I didn’t get killed, the fact that some of the crew members didn’t get hurt or killed. That’s a chance I would never take again. I was young and I didn’t give a damn. I just went out and did it.”

“The Exorcist,” a singularly terrifying 1973 horror masterpiece about a teenage girl possessed by Satan, gave Friedkin the biggest box-office hit of his career. The movie earned more than $440 million globally, shocking audiences around the world with its head-spinning violence and disturbing imagery.

Friedkin also directed a series of cult favorites that have earned loyal followings over the years, including the suspenseful “Sorcerer,” the Al Pacino psychodrama “Cruising” and the crime epic “To Live and Die in L.A.” He struggled to reach the commercial and critical highs of his '70s output, though, and in recent years he steadily retreated from the limelight.

He was born on Aug. 29, 1935 in Chicago. He got his start in local television and documentary projects before moving to feature films, making his debut with the Sonny & Cher vehicle "Good Times" in 1967. Three years later, he directed "The Boys in the Band," a LGBTQ cinema landmark about a group of gay friends in Manhattan.

Friedkin got his big break in 1971 with "The French Connection," a smash with audiences and critics alike. The critic Pauline Kael called the movie a "hugely successful slam-bang thriller that zaps the audience with noise, speed, and brutality."

"The French Connection" catapulted Friedkin to the top ranks of American filmmakers, putting him in league with other New Hollywood rising stars like Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich and Francis Ford Coppola.

The director told NBC News in 2021 that the movie struck him as a time capsule for a rougher and grittier chapter in New York City history, saying in part: "The film reminds me of the different nature of New York back then. Nothing about the city was embellished in the film."

Friedkin leaped from "The French Connection" to "The Exorcist," adapted from William Peter Blatty's novel of the same name. The movie, starring Linda Blair as the possessed girl and Ellen Burstyn as her helpless mother, scandalized viewers with its r
"This movie doesn’t rest on the screen; it’s a frontal assault," Roger Ebert wrote in his review.

In the years to come, Friedkin continued to work steadily on genre entertainments that often wrestled with the ugliness of humanity and moral shades of gray. "Sorcerer," "Cruising" and "To Live and Die in L.A." failed to ignite theater box offices but found favor over the years among cinephiles.

Friedkin's work in the 1990s and 2000s was shakier and less consistent, though two late-career descents into darkness — the psychological thrillers "Bug" and "Killer Joe" — showed glimmers of his youthful promise.

The director recently completed production on "The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial," a legal
drama starring Kiefer Sutherland that is slated to premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September.

PP

[FD2]

Great films!

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[Karearea]

BBC: Sixto Rodriguez: Searching for Sugar Man singer dies aged 81

Sixto Rodriguez, the musician and subject of the documentary Searching for Sugar Man, has died aged 81.

The Detroit-born singer's official website confirmed he died on Tuesday.

Rodriguez launched his career in 1967 but initially struggled to find success in his native US and was ultimately dropped by his record label.

However, his music gradually developed a cult following overseas, and his records enjoyed significant sales and airplay in South Africa and Australia.

Little was known about Rodriguez in the country despite his music being so popular, and false rumours had circulated that the singer had killed himself on stage in the 1970s.

But Rodriguez was in fact still alive and well and living in Detroit, having returned to a life of relative obscurity and construction work.

He was unaware of his popularity abroad, which partly stemmed from bootlegged copies of his album Cold Fact circulating in South Africa, where it been adopted as an unofficial soundtrack to youth protests against apartheid.

Despite his success in the country, Rodriguez only found out about his success in South Africa when his eldest daughter, Eva, came across a website dedicated to him in 1997 - when the internet was still in its relative infancy.

After contacting the website, Rodriguez went on his first South African tour in the late 1990s.

The Mexican-American singer and guitarist was playing sold-out shows in the country's biggest arenas to thousands of fans and went on to perform a string of shows in Australia.

In 2012, the Oscar-winning Searching for Sugar Man saw two South African fans track Rodriguez down to see what had become of him.

The release of the documentary, which depicted the story of Rodriguez discovering his own fame overseas, saw his career enjoy another resurgence, and he began touring and recording once again.

The film prompted the two albums Rodriguez recorded in the early 1970s - Cold Fact and Coming From Reality - to become successful around the world four decades after their original release, and Rodriguez played festivals including Coachella and Glastonbury.

A statement posted on his official website read: "It is with great sadness that we at Sugarman.org announce that Sixto Diaz Rodriguez has passed away earlier today.

"We extend our most heartfelt condolences to his daughters - Sandra, Eva and Regan - and to all his family. Rodriguez was 81 years old. May His Dear Soul Rest In Peace."

The musician's cause of death was not announced.

Simon Chinn, who produced Searching For Sugar Man, described Rodriguez's death as "such sad news".

"He was a true legend, and it was an honour to know him," he said. "What a privilege to be able to share his amazing story with the world. RIP Rodriguez - your music will live forever."

South African musician David Scott, known as The Kiffness, said Rodriguez was a "legend with the most amazing life story".

"In the US he lived in relative obscurity, but was hugely popular in here South Africa without him ever knowing until much later on," he said.

"We will never witness a story like his in our lifetime again."

[Karearea]

I was sorry to see that this lady had passed away:

Guardian: Coronation Street actor Anita Carey dies aged 75

I remember her from Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads where she appeared to be very charming and natural.

[PHXPhlyer]

Robbie Robertson, leader of The Band dies at 80
He was 80 and passed away after a long illness, his manager said

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ro ... -rcna99107

Robbie Robertson, a Canadian musician and songwriter who made his mark as the leader of the 1970's with an influential rock band that was simply called "The Band," has died after a long illness. He was 80.

His death was announced by his longtime manager Jared Levine.

"Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death, including his wife, Janet, his ex-wife, Dominique, her partner Nicholas, and his children Alexandra, Sebastian, Delphine, and Delphine’s partner Kenny," it said, in part. "He is also survived by his grandchildren Angelica, Donovan, Dominic, Gabriel and Seraphina."

Born Jaime Royal Robertson on July 5, 1943, he was one of the last two surviving members of The Band, an influential rock band that mixed folk, gospel and jazz with rhythm and blues and helped forge a distinctly American kind of roots rock sound.

But it was Robertson's appearance in The Last Waltz, a 1978 documentary directed by Martin Scorsese, that made him a star.

Robertson played lead guitar and wrote some of The Band's best-known songs, including "The Weight," "Up on Cripple Creek," and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."

PP

[OneHungLow]

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-66449150

[Woody]

[OneHungLow]

Michael Parkinson RIP

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... es-aged-88

Michael Parkinson, the broadcaster best known for hosting the talkshow Parkinson from 1971 to 2007, has died aged 88.

A statement from his family says: “After a brief illness Sir Michael Parkinson passed away peacefully at home last night in the company of his family.”

“The family request that they are given privacy and time to grieve.”

In tributes shared on social media, comedian Eddie Izzard calls Parkinson “the king of the intelligent interview”, while BBC broadcaster Nick Robinson describes him as “the greatest interviewer of our age who owned Saturday night TV”.

Parkinson began his career in print journalism, working for local papers based near his hometown of Barnsley before becoming a feature writer at the Manchester Guardian and then at the Daily Express in London.

After a stint in the Army, seeing active service in Egypt during the Suez Crisis as a British Army press liaison officer, Parkinson moved into television. He worked for Granada Television in the 1960s as a current affairs reporter and presented the station’s late-night film review programme, Cinema, from 1969.

In 1971, his eponymous BBC talkshow began on a late-night Saturday slot, ultimately running until 1982 before being revived from 1998 to 2007. Parkinson pioneered a conversational style of interviewing, putting guests at ease with his relaxed questioning and lack of interruptions, and prompting an unexpectedly confrontational exchange with the fearsome boxer Muhammad Ali in 1974, a flirtatious chat with actor Shirley Maclaine, and a slapstick encounter with entertainer Rod Hull and his puppet Emu in 1976.

In a 2003 interview, Parkinson estimated that he had interviewed over 2000 celebrities in the course of his career. Guardian writer Simon Hattenstone described Parkinson as “the great British talkshow host” in a 2012 interview, noting his enthusiasm towards his guests as a hallmark of his success.

Parkinson also hosted a number of BBC radio programmes, including Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs for a season in 1986, Parkinson on Sport on Radio Five Live from 1994 to 1996, and the morning show Parkinson’s Sunday Supplement on Radio 2 from 1996 to 2007.

Parkinson received a number of accolades for his work during his lifetime, including a knighthood in 2008 and was made the first Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University in the same year.

In 2013, the presenter revealed he had received radiotherapy treatment for prostate cancer. Two years later he confirmed he got the all-clear from doctors.

He is survived by his wife Mary and their three children, Andrew, Nicholas and Michael Jr.

[tango15]

Dear old Parky. Perhaps one of the few TV personalities who was able to steer his way through his career without hitting any major obstacles. He was very widely respected. A proper gent, both on and off the screen, and never found it necessary to resort to the sort of language and antics of his unnecessarily camp Irish successor. Graham William Walker also destroyed the good work of fellow Irishman Terry Wogan on the Eurovision Song Contest. Sadly, we shall not see the likes of Parky again. The BBC is far too woke nowadays to put up a straight white British talent in any major programme.

[OneHungLow]

The French army general appointed by Emmanuel Macron to oversee the reconstruction of the fire-ravaged Notre-Dame Cathedral has died while hiking in the Pyrénées.

Mountain gendarmes discovered the body of Jean-Louis Georgelin, 74, the former chief of the defence staff, after he failed to return to a mountain refuge on Friday.

He is believed to have fallen on Mount Valier, near the Faustin pass in the Ariège, south-east France, at an altitude of 2,650 metres.

The public prosecutor’s office in Foix confirmed on Saturday the body had been formally identified and that the death was being treated as an accident.

Macron tweeted on Saturday: “With the death of General Jean-Louis Georgelin, the nation has lost one of its great soldiers, France one of its great servants and Notre-Dame the master manager of its renaissance.”

Georgelin, a graduate of France’s elite Saint-Cyr military academy, first joined the infantry then a parachute regiment before returning to the infantry. He also trained at the US Army Command and General Staff college, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; served in Algeria, Lebanon and Bosnia; and oversaw French military operations in Ivory Coast and Afghanistan.

He was the military chief of staff and special adviser to the then French president Jacques Chirac from 2002–06.

A practising Catholic, he was nominated to take charge of the restoration of Notre-Dame after it was damaged by fire in April 2019. In the aftermath, Macron had made what many saw as an overly optimistic pledge to rebuild the cathedral in five years.

Georgelin said: “It’s not abnormal to choose a Catholic for such a mission. My role is to return the cathedral to the Catholic religion in the best possible conditions.”

People of “all persuasions” in France had wept to see the Paris landmark burn, he said.

The general took a military approach to the job, designating himself as chief of operations of a Notre-Dame “taskforce” and reportedly adopting the motto: “Advance without procrastination”.

He was known as a plain speaker. In 2019, the government rebuked Georgelin after he told the Notre-Dame reconstruction’s chief architect, Philippe Villeneuve, to “shut his mouth” in a dispute over whether to replace the spire with an exact replica or a modern alternative.

The culture minister, Franck Riester, described Georgelin’s outburst as “not acceptable”, adding: “Respect is a cardinal value in our society. As public officials, we must be exemplary.”

Georgelin dismissed the incident, insisting there had been no quarrel just “respect and reciprocal esteem”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... ntain-fall

[OneHungLow]

Doreen Mantle, who has died aged 97, found fame in her 60s as Mrs Warboys, the hapless, naive best friend of Margaret, the grumpy Victor Meldrew’s longsuffering wife, in the sitcom One Foot in the Grave. The much-loved programme, created by David Renwick, starred Richard Wilson as Victor and Annette Crosbie as Margaret, and ran for six series between 1990 and 2000.

The character of Mrs Warboys was initially devised for a story in the first episode, in which Renwick needed a guinea pig for the forcibly retired Victor when, looking for ways to fill his time, he tests his conjuror’s rusting guillotine, recovered from the attic after 12 years. Feeling that the scene would not be as funny with Margaret suffering the humiliation, Renwick substituted her friend. “I want to get out – I feel extremely dizzy,” Mrs Warboys says, lying flat on her front, shortly before the blade falls and she survives the ordeal.

Renwick noted in his journal that “a rather conservative-looking” Mantle gave a “weighty, truthful reading” in her audition, adding that she was “amusing in a subtler way than I’d envisaged, like a classy version of Doris Hare”.

Mantle became the perennial victim, alongside Crosbie and Wilson, whose character’s constant irritation with the world around him was embodied in his catchphrase: “I don’t believe it!”

Of Mrs Warboys, Mantle told the author Richard Webber: “She always wanted to help and meant well all the time. It’s just that she was tactless and not very bright, although occasionally she’d have these strange streaks of knowledge, like the time she knew all the answers while playing Trivial Pursuit.” Mrs Warboys beating Victor at board games was a running joke in the show.

Mantle’s newfound fame led to appearances in shows such as a Weakest Link sitcom special in 2002. Asked by the host, Anne Robinson, for her most memorable moment, she replied, deadpan, as in the mode of her character: “I was rolled down a hill and mounted by a dog.” The studio audience roared with laughter.

Doreen was born in Johannesburg, to English parents, Hilda (nee Greenberg) and Bernard Mantle (variously known as Barrett, Barnett and Ben), who ran a hotel. When she was six weeks old, the family moved to Britain, returning to South Africa four years later, in 1930, shortly after the birth of her brother, Alan.

While taking a social studies degree at the University of Witwatersrand, she acted with its dramatic society and appeared on the South African amateur stage and radio, before becoming a social worker. On a visit to London in 1949, she performed at the Gateway theatre.

Back in South Africa, she married Joshua Smith in 1951 and, not wanting to bring up a family under the apartheid regime, the couple settled in Britain. “I wanted to see new places, to get away from parochial views and to change the world,” Mantle said; she had met Nelson Mandela when he was a young lawyer. She became a volunteer with a legal aid organisation: “I really wanted to make a difference and stop injustice.”

She acted at Colchester repertory theatre (1954) before taking a break from the stage after the birth of her first son. Shortly after her return, she had a small role as a wedding guest at the Aldwych theatre in a 1967 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Jules Feiffer’s play Little Murders.

After a lean spell during which she worked as a London tourist guide, Mantle’s career was kickstarted by William Trevor’s play Going Home at the King’s Head theatre club, Islington, in 1972. The Stage praised her “uncannily truthful” performance as a school’s repressed under-matron expressing a desire to care for an insolent boy she is accompanying on a railway journey. The London Evening Standard critic Nicholas de Jongh described it as “the most shattering performance to be seen in London”.

Mantle continued playing women consumed by loneliness in other fringe plays written by Trevor, A Night With Mrs da Tanka (King’s Head, 1972) and The 47th Saturday (Open Space theatre, 1973). She also starred in Miss Fanshaw’s Story, a 1973 TV version of Going Home.

Later, her portrayal of Linda, the dignified wife of the title character (Warren Mitchell), in a revival of the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman at the National Theatre (1979-80) won Mantle an Olivier award as best supporting actress.

Shortly afterwards, she starred as Helene Hanff, alongside Ronnie Stevens as Frank Doel, in the suitably charming West End production of 84 Charing Cross Road (Ambassadors theatre, 1982-83).

By then, television casting directors had spotted her skills as a character actor and kept her busy on screen for more than 40 years. Many of her parts were one-offs, but she had a short run as Mrs Catchpole in the first series of The Duchess of Duke Street (1976) and played Karl Marx’s wife in the first two parts of the Eleanor Marx trilogy (1977) and Rita Sterne, mother of the detective (Ivan Kaye) in Sam Saturday (1992).

She also appeared as Queenie, the school crossing attendant, in the first two series (2006 and 2008) of the sitcom Jam & Jerusalem, written by Jennifer Saunders. Then came a stint in Coronation Street (2010-11) playing Joy Fishwick, mother of Colin, a teacher who died and was buried below the Underworld factory after John Stape stole his identity. She came looking for her son, only to end up dying at Stape’s hands herself.

Mantle’s later stage roles included Florence Boothroyd, grandmother of the daydreaming undertaker’s assistant (Ralf Little), in a 2004 tour of Billy Liar and Mrs Voysey opposite Julian Glover in The Voysey Inheritance at the National Theatre in 2006.

Her marriage ended in divorce. She is survived by her two sons, Quentin and Nicholas, and her brother.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... he%20Grave.

[PHXPhlyer]

Adobe co-founder John Warnock, who helped invent the PDF, is dead at 82

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/21/business ... index.html

CNN
—
John Warnock, co-founder of Adobe, has died aged 82, the software company announced on Sunday.

Warnock helped start the revolutionary company in 1982 with the late Charles Geschke, and transformed Adobe into a software powerhouse that became the backbone of the internet.

“John’s brilliance and technology innovations changed the world,” Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen said in a letter sent to employees. “It is a sad day for the Adobe community and the industry for which he has been an inspiration for decades.”

Warnock and Geschke were credited with building PostScript, a programming language, which helped usher in the desktop publishing revolution.

The company said Warnock’s “vision and passion enabled Adobe to deliver groundbreaking innovations such as Illustrator, the ubiquitous PDF file format and Acrobat, Photoshop and Premiere Pro, defining the desktop era and unleashing creativity and opportunity for millions of people.”

Narayen praised Warnock’s “indomitable spirit, passion and belief in building a company with strong values that has impacted all of us who have had the good fortune of working at Adobe.”

Warnock was Adobe’s CEO until 2000 and continued as chairman of the board until 2017. Until his death, he was also a member of its board of directors.

Among his achievements, he was awarded the prestigious National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama in 2009 and the Marconi Prize for technological contributions to information science and communications.

A Salt Lake City native, Warnock earned his several degrees from the University of Utah, including a doctorate in electrical engineering for computer science, a master’s degree in mathematics and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and philosophy.

A 2013 profile said his “high school counselor told him that he had zero chance of being a successful engineer” because he “didn’t have a head for math” and failed ninth-grade algebra.

“I had an amazing teacher in high school who, essentially, completely turned me around,” Warnock said. “He was really good at getting you to love mathematics, and that’s when I got into it.”

A cause of death wasn’t revealed. Warnock is survived by his wife and three children.

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

Bob Barker, longtime ‘Price Is Right’ host, dies at 99
When producers hired Barker to host “The Price Is Right” in 1972, they hit the jackpot. The game show had faded significantly from its glory days in the late ‘50s and had been punted by two networks before it landed at CBS.

https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop ... -rcna42292

Bob Barker, the longtime host of television’s “The Price Is Right” who used his combination of comfort-food charm and deadpan humor to become an American television staple, has died, according to his longtime publicist. He was 99.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker has left us,” publicist Roger Neal said in a statement Saturday.

Neal served as Barker’s publicist from 1987 to 1994 and again from 2020.

When producers hired Barker to host “The Price Is Right” in 1972, they hit the jackpot. The game show had faded significantly from its glory days in the late ‘50s and had been punted by two networks before it landed at CBS.

But in Barker, the show found its voice, and it has continued to air a decade and a half after he retired.

Robert Thompson, the director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, said one reason Barker became an iconic game show host was the sheer length of his career. Barker spent more than half a century on TV, taking over as host of the popular “Truth or Consequences” in 1956 and retiring from “The Price Is Right” in 2007.
“From the black and white era of television right up to the new century, Bob Barker had a real presence on two really big shows,” Thompson said.

“Secondly, you’ve got some game shows where the host just stands behind a podium, but Barker really interacted with regular people” who were selected as contestants. “And he was particularly good at it.”

Robert William Barker was born in Darrington, Washington, on Dec. 12, 1923, and at the age of 6 moved to a Sioux Indian reservation in Mission, South Dakota, with his mother after his father died in a workplace accident. His mother, Matilda, a schoolteacher, remarried and moved again to Missouri. After a two-year stint in the Navy at the tail end of World War II, Barker returned to Missouri to attend Drury College, now Drury University, and graduated with a degree in economics.

Barker landed a job at a radio station in Florida, and it didn’t take long for word of his smooth delivery to travel across the wires. In 1950, he moved to California to start his own radio program, “The Bob Barker Show,” in Burbank.

Television producers clearly tuned in, and Barker landed his first game show in 1956, NBC’s “Truth or Consequences,” a job he would hold for 18 years until it went off the air.

Truth or Consequences

Barker gave prizes away on “The Price Is Right,” which became the longest-running daytime game show in TV history in 1990, until his retirement.

And when he wasn’t giving away the keys to brand new cars, he was a TV fixture in other time slots. In 1967, he began a 20-year run as emcee of the Miss Universe and Miss America pageants, and in 1969 he started a similarly long run as the host of the New Year’s Day Tournament of Roses Parade.

But Barker’s made-for-television image took a huge hit 1994, when a former “Price Is Right” model accused him in a lawsuit of threatening to fire her if she didn’t have sex with him. Although the model, Dian Parkinson — a 19-year veteran of the show who had been fired the previous year — ultimately dropped the suit, Barker was forced to admit publicly that the two had had a less-than-professional relationship off screen.

Barker’s wife, his high school sweetheart, Dorothy Jo Gideon, had died years before, in 1981. They married in 1945.

The scandal didn’t prevent Barker from being given an Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Barker was also a longtime animal rights activist, ending each episode of “The Price Is Right” with the plea: “Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered.”

Here's Hollywood

He founded a charity in 1995 that provided just such services for pet owners — the DJ&T Foundation, named after his wife and her mother. His passion for the cause can be traced to the first prize he gave away as host of “The Price Is Right” — a fur coat.

“I went to Mark Goodson and told him I didn’t want to be on the stage with these fur coats,” Barker told “CBS This Morning” in 2013, referring to the show’s producer. “So he took fur coats off our show.”

Barker’s longtime friend Nancy Burnet remembered him for his work in exposing animal cruelty.

“I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker, and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry and including working to improve the plight of abused and exploited animals in the United States and internationally,” Burnet said in a statement Saturday.

She added that the two had been friends for 40 years. "He will be missed.”

In 2013, Barker donated $1 million to move three captive elephants from the Toronto Zoo to a sanctuary in California.

The same year, Barker returned in a surprise visit to “Price Is Right” and his successor as host, Drew Carey.

“People ask me, ‘What do you miss most about ‘Price Is Right?’” Barker told Parade Magazine in 2013. “And I say, ‘The money.’ But that is not altogether true. I miss the people, too.”

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

Dire Straits guitarist Jack Sonni dies age 68

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/01/entertai ... index.html

Jack Sonni, former guitarist for British rock band Dire Straits, has died, the group announced on social media.

“#JackSonni Rest In Peace” the band wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday alongside a black and white photograph of the guitarist. He was 68.

Sonni, who was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, met founding Dire Straits members and guitarists David and Mark Knopfler while working in a guitar shop in Manhattan in 1978, according to a post on the Dire Straits Blog, which was shared by the band on social media.

The Knopflers had founded the band the year before with bassist John Illsley and drummer Pick Withers.

Affectionately known as “the other guitarist” – a label he embraced in the biography on his own website – Sonni began to play with the band, including for the album “Brothers in Arms,” which shot to international success, and the subsequent tour.

The album spent 14 weeks at number one in the UK following its release in 1985, and nine weeks at number one in the Billboard Top 200. The album went on to sell more than 30 million copies worldwide, according to the band’s official website. “Brothers in Arms” is credited with being the first album to sell more than one million copies in CD format, according to Billboard.

“So sorry to hear the sad news that Jack Sonni has died, we loved having him with us on the Brothers in Arms tour, fond memories,” Illsley wrote in a post on Facebook Thursday.

Alongside his musical career, Sonni was also a writer and hosted a podcast, “The Leisure Class with Jack Sonni.”

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

Former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed dies at 94
His son Dodi Fayed also died in the crash that killed Princess Diana in 1997. Al Fayed spent the rest of his life fighting the British establishment he blamed for their deaths.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/form ... rcna103085

LONDON — Mohamed Al Fayed, former owner of the famed Harrods department store in London whose son was killed in a car crash with Princess Diana, has died, his family said Friday. He was 94.

Al Fayed, a self-made Egyptian businessman who also once owned the Fulham Football Club, was devastated by the death of son Dodi Fayed in the car crash in Paris with Princess Diana in 1997. He spent the rest of his life mourning the loss and fighting the British establishment he blamed for their deaths.

“Mrs. Mohamed Al Fayed, her children and grandchildren wish to confirm that her beloved husband, their father and their grandfather, Mohamed, has passed away peacefully of old age on Wednesday August 30, 2023,″ his family said in a statement released by the Fulham club. “He enjoyed a long and fulfilled retirement surrounded by his loved ones.″

Al Fayed was convinced that Dodi and Diana were killed in a conspiracy masterminded by Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. He maintained the royal family arranged the accident because they did not like Diana dating an Egyptian.

Al Fayed claimed that Diana was pregnant and planning to marry Dodi and that the royal family could not countenance the princess marrying a Muslim.

In 2008, Al Fayed told an inquest the list of alleged conspirators included Philip, then Prince Charles, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Diana’s sister Sarah McCorquodale, two former London police chiefs and the CIA.

The inquest concluded that Diana and Dodi died because of the reckless actions of their driver and paparazzi chasing the couple.

Born on Jan. 27, 1929, in Alexandria, Egypt, Al Fayed was the son of a school inspector who began his business career with interests in shipping. He moved to Britain in the 1960s to set about building an empire.

He seemed to thrive on the limelight. Al Fayed hit the headlines in the 1980s as he battled with rival tycoon “Tiny” Rowland over control of the House of Fraser group, which included Harrods.

Al Fayed and his brother bought a 30% stake in House Of Fraser from Rowland in 1984, and took control of Harrods for 615 million pounds the following year. That transaction put him in conflict with British authorities. The Department of Trade and Industry investigation into the purchase found that the brothers had “dishonestly misrepresented their origins, their wealth, their business interests and their resources.’’

Al Fayed was also a key player in the “cash for questions” scandal that roiled British politics in the 1990s.

Al Fayed was sued for libel a British lawmaker, Neil Hamilton, after the businessman claimed he had given Hamilton envelopes of cash and a lavish stay at the Ritz in Paris, in return for asking questions in the House of Commons.

Hamilton’s lawyer, Desmond Browne, claimed the allegation was fantasy, saying: ″If there were Olympic medals for lying, Mr. Fayed would be a prime contender for a gold one.”

The jury found in Al Fayed’s favor in December 1999.

Al Fayed applied for British citizenship, but his application was rejected in both 1995 and 1998.

The Sunday Times Rich List, which documents the fortunes of Britain’s wealthiest people, put the family’s fortune at 1.7 billion pounds ($2.1 billion) this year, making Al Fayed the 104th richest person in Britain.



PP

[CharlieOneSix]

In the late 1970's we used to operate Al Fayed's Bell 206L helicopter G-BFAL which was registered under the Genavco Air Ltd name. Flew him many times, various locations, but mainly out of or into Battersea Heliport, LHR, LTN, and a country house in Sussex. Always very charming and pleasant to talk to and he always made sure one of his minions dropped me a folding note as he left the helicopter!