A lot of people seem to be dying, but nobody is naming them in the dead pool.  meanwhile, all the people we named - Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Russell, Mickey Rooney - are all still going.

We've only had one hit with Tony Randall.  What are the odds?                   

                     Arthur Miller died today. he was 89.                   

                     LOS ANGELES - Actress Sandra Dee, the blond beauty who attracted a large teen audience in the 1960s with films such as "Gidget" and "Tammy and the Doctor" and had a headlined marriage to pop singer Bobby Darin, died Sunday. She was 63.

Dee died at 5:57 a.m. at the Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, said Cynthia Mead, nursing supervisor.

She died of complications from kidney disease after nearly two weeks in the hospital, said Steve Blauner, a longtime family friend who represents Darin's estate. Blauner said Dee had been on dialysis for about four years.


Boy, I didn't see this coming. Didn't even know she was sick. This is awful, she was kind of an Icon for me...one of the best Blondes ever.

RIP                   

                     AND Dr. Thompson today, too!

Another great one is gone.

I can't say I am surprised at his manner of passing.

Chose his own manner of passing before someone, or some disease, or fate chose it for him.

A big F-you to death itself: no one tells Thompson when to die, except for Thompson.

That was Thompson.

I just wish he'd waited a little longer... he had so much more to contribute.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...s/obit_thompson                   

                     NY Times

February 24, 2005



Simone Simon, Actress in 'Cat People' Horror Film, Dies at 93
By CHRISTOPHER LEHMANN-HAUPT

imone Simon, the French actress of near-feline beauty best known to American audiences for her haunting role in the 1942 RKO horror film "Cat People," died on Tuesday in Paris. She was 93.

Her death was announced by her friends and family to Agence France-Presse.

In "Cat People" Ms. Simon played a Serbian-born wife who fears that when her passions are aroused she will turn into a panther that kills. Her casting in this film and its mostly unrelated sequel, "The Curse of the Cat People" (RKO, 1944), was probably inspired by her role as the devil's emissary in "All That Money Can Buy" (RKO, 1941), an adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet's short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster," in which Ms. Simon's character steals a good man from his wife.

Ms. Simon made one other film for RKO, "Mademoiselle Fifi" (1944), an adaptation of two Guy de Maupassant stories about a French laundress who defies occupying German forces during the Franco-Prussian war. Although it was not a hit in the United States, it was the first American film to be shown in France after the Normandy invasion.

Ms. Simon was born on April 23, 1911, in Bèthune, France, to Henri Louis Firmin and Erma Maria Domenica Giorcelli. She grew up in Marseilles. After working briefly in Paris as a fashion designer and model, she made her stage debut in 1931 in the operetta "Balthazar."

The same year she appeared in her first film, "Le Chanteur Inconnu" ("The Unknown Singer"). After making about a dozen movies, she was summoned to Hollywood by Darryl Zanuck, the head of 20th Century Fox, to repeat her French ingénue roles, but despite her considerable acting talent and her distinctive looks, she failed to connect with a mass audience. The studio even tried to make her a singing star in "Love and Hisses" (1937) and "Josette" (1938), but she had a weak voice. Except for the four RKO films, her American work is largely forgotten.

In 1950 she returned to Europe to make films including "La Ronde" (1950) and "Le Modèle," one of the three de Maupassant stories in the anthology "Le Plaisir" (1952); both were directed by Max Ophüls. Her last appearance was in Michel Deville's "Femme en Bleu" (1973).                   

                     Academy Award Winner Teresa Wright Dies


LOS ANGELES - Teresa Wright, the willowy actress who starred opposite Gary Cooper and Marlon Brando (news) and won a supporting Academy Award in 1942 for "Mrs. Miniver," has died. She was 86.


   

Wright died Sunday of a heart attack at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut, her daughter, Mary-Kelly Busch, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.


Wright's career skyrocketed after her first film, "The Little Foxes," which brought her an Oscar nomination as best supporting actress of 1941. The following year she was honored with two nominations: lead actress as the wife of Lou Gehrig in "The Pride of the Yankees" and supporting actress as Greer Garson (news)'s daughter in the wartime saga "Mrs. Miniver."


She also starred in three other classics: Alfred Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt" in 1943; Brando's first film, "The Men," in 1950; and the multiple Oscar winner "The Best Years of Our Lives" in 1946.


Later generations saw her in an occasional character role, including the eccentric, warmhearted Miss Birdie in the 1997 film version of John Grisham's "The Rainmaker," starring Matt Damon (news), and in 1988's "The Good Mother," with Diane Keaton and Liam Neeson.


Wright's lovely face, quiet manner and dramatic skill made her a popular leading actress in the 1940s and early '50s. She appeared opposite Cooper in "The Pride of the Yankees" and "Casanova Brown," Robert Mitchum in "Pursued," David Niven in "Enchantment," Lew Ayres in "The Capture" and Cornel Wilde in "California Conquest."


From the beginning of her Hollywood career, Wright displayed an independence that rankled her boss, the imperious Hollywood producer, Sam Goldwyn. Goldwyn fired her in 1948, claiming she was "uncooperative" for refusing to go to New York to publicize one of her films.


The actress expressed no regret about losing her $5,000-a-week contract. She claimed illness and added: "The type of contract between players and producers is, I feel, antiquated in form and abstract in concept. ... We have no privacies which producers cannot invade, they trade us like cattle, boss us like children."


Wright stood out as an anomaly in a Hollywood era when glamour was demanded of actresses. She appeared on-screen as the dutiful daughter and supportive wife, never the seductress.


"I'm just not the glamour type," she admitted in a 1950 interview. "Glamour girls are born, not made. And the real ones can be glamorous even if they don't wear magnificent clothes. I'll bet Lana Turner would look glamorous in anything."


When a studio asked her to pose for "cheesecake" — the term for photos in bathing suits or other scanty attire — she declined.


"I argued that I didn't have any of the attributes to pose for cheesecake," she said. "I said I would have to make good on my acting ability, which was the only attribute I could offer."


Wright was born in New York City on Oct. 27, 1918, and grew up in Maplewood, N.J., where she showed promise in theatricals at Columbia High School. Her instructor persuaded Teresa's father to allow her to study for the summer at the famed Wharf theater in Provincetown, Mass.


Wright began her career in summer theater, then got a job as understudy to Dorothy McGuire, who had taken over the lead role in the hit play "Our Town." After touring in "Our Town," Wright won a role in another stage hit, "Life with Father." Goldwyn saw the play and brought her to Hollywood to play the role of Alexandra Giddens in "The Little Foxes."


While under contract to Goldwyn, she met the producer's story editor Niven Busch, who wrote "Duel in the Sun" and other novels. They were married in 1942 and had two children, Niven Terence and Mary Kelly. Two of Busch's sons by a previous marriage lived with them on a 300-acre ranch in Hollister.


In 1952, she ended her marriage to Busch, accusing him of making her feel useless "by refusing to allow me the right to have anything to say in the care and raising of my children and the running of our house."


In 1959, Wright married Robert Anderson, author of "Tea and Sympathy" and other plays. She stopped acting for several years, but returned to the New York theater for "Mary, Mary" in 1962.

   



She drew glowing reviews in the Broadway revival of "Death of a Salesman" in 1975, and was warmly received in occasional screen appearances later in life. Besides "The Good Mother" and "The Rainmaker," Wright had character roles in "Hail Hero!" "The Happy Ending," "Roseland" and "Somewhere in Time."

She and Anderson divorced and later remarried.                   

I know he is not a classic but Mitch Hedberg Died. I am so upset. He was Hillarious and my imaginary boy friend.

Ruth Hussey died. 

Batman's Riddler, Frank Gorshin, dead
Talented impressionist played George Burns on B'way
Wednesday, May 18, 2005 Posted: 1:37 PM EDT (1737 GMT)

<div class='bbimg'></div>

<div class='bbimg'></div>As the Riddler

<div class='bbimg'></div>as George Burns

<div class='bbimg'></div>And as seen in Star Trek

BURBANK, California (AP) -- Actor Frank Gorshin, the impressionist with 100 faces best known for his Emmy-nominated role as the Riddler on the old "Batman" television series, has died. He was 72.

Gorshin&#39;s wife of 48 years, Christina, was at his side when he died Tuesday at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, his agent and longtime friend, Fred Wostbrock, said Wednesday.

"He put up a valiant fight with lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia," Mrs. Gorshin said in a statement.

Despite dozens of television and movie credits, Gorshin will be forever remembered for his role as the Riddler, Adam West&#39;s villainous foil in the question mark-pocked green suit and bowler hat on "Batman" from 1966-69.

"It really was a catalyst for me," Gorshin recalled in a 2002 Associated Press interview. "I was nobody. I had done some guest shots here and there. But after I did that, I became a headliner in Vegas, so I can&#39;t put it down."

West said the death of his longtime friend was a big loss.

"Frank will be missed," West said in a statement. "He was a friend and fascinating character."

Gorshin earned another Emmy nomination for a guest shot on "Star Trek."

In 2002, Gorshin portrayed George Burns on Broadway in the one-man show "Say Goodnight Gracie." He used only a little makeup and no prosthetics.

"I don&#39;t know how to explain it. It just comes," he said. "I wish I could say, &#39;This is step A, B and C.&#39; But I can&#39;t do that. I do it, you know. The ironic thing is I&#39;ve done impressions all my life -- I never did George Burns."

Gorshin&#39;s final performance will be broadcast on Thursday&#39;s CBS-TV series "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

Actress Anne Bancroft Dies at Age 73
By DINO HAZELL, Associated Press Writer
30 minutes ago

NEW YORK -     Anne Bancroft, who won the 1962 best actress Oscar as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" but achieved greater fame as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate," has died. She was 73.

She died of uterine cancer on Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital, John Barlow, a spokesman for her husband,     Mel Brooks, said Tuesday.

Bancroft was awarded the Tony for creating the role on Broadway of poor-sighted Annie Sullivan, the teacher of the deaf and blind Keller. She repeated her portrayal in the film version.

Yet despite her Academy Award and four other nominations, "The Graduate" overshadowed her other achievements.

Dustin Hoffman delivered the famous line when he realized his girlfriend&#39;s mother was coming on to him at her house: "Mrs. Robinson, you&#39;re trying to seduce me. Aren&#39;t you?"

Bancroft complained to a 2003 interviewer: "I am quite surprised that with all my work, and some of it is very, very good, that nobody talks about `The Miracle Worker.&#39; We&#39;re talking about Mrs. Robinson. I understand the world. ... I&#39;m just a little dismayed that people aren&#39;t beyond it yet."

Mike Nichols, who directed "The Graduate," called Bancroft a masterful performer.

"Her combination of brains, humor, frankness and sense were unlike any other artist," Nichols said in a statement. "Her beauty was constantly shifting with her roles, and because she was a consummate actress she changed radically for every part."

Her beginnings in Hollywood were unimpressive. She was signed by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1952 and given the glamour treatment. She had been acting in television as Anne Marno (her real name: Anna Maria Louise Italiano), but it sounded too ethnic for movies. The studio gave her a choice of names; she picked Bancroft "because it sounded dignified."

After a series of B pictures, she escaped to Broadway in 1958 and won her first Tony opposite     Henry Fonda in "Two for the Seesaw." The stage and movie versions of "The Miracle Worker" followed. Her other Academy nominations: "The Pumpkin Eater" (1964); "The Graduate" (1967); "The Turning Point" (1977); "Agnes of God" (1985).

Bancroft became known for her willingness to assume a variety of portrayals. She appeared as Winston Churchill&#39;s American mother in TV&#39;s "Young Winston"; as Golda Meir in "Golda" onstage; a gypsy woman in the film "Love Potion No. 9"; and a centenarian for the TV version of "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All."

After an unhappy three-year marriage to builder Martin May, Bancroft married comedian-director-producer Brooks in 1956. They met when she was rehearsing a musical number, "Married I Can Always Get," for the Perry Como television show, and a voice from offstage called: "I&#39;m Mel Brooks."

In a 1984 interview she said she told her psychiatrist the next day: "Let&#39;s speed this process up — I&#39;ve met the right man. See, I&#39;d never had so much pleasure being with another human being. I wanted him to enjoy me too. It was that simple." A son, Maximilian, was born in 1972.

Bancroft appeared in three of Brooks&#39; comedies: "Silent Movie," a remake of "To Be or Not to Be" and "Dracula: Dead and Loving It."

She also was the one who suggested that he make a stage musical of his movie "The Producers." She explained that when he was afraid of writing a full-blown musical, including the music, "I sent him to an analyst."

When Bancroft watched Nathan Lane and     Matthew Broderick rehearse "The Producers," she realized how much she had missed the theater. In 2002 she returned to Broadway for the first time since 1981, appearing in Edward Albee&#39;s "Occupant."

She was born Sept. 17, 1931, in the Bronx to Italian immigrant parents. She recalled scrawling "I want to be an actress" on the back fence of her flat when she was 9. Her father derided her ambitions, saying, "Who are we to dream these dreams?" Her mother was the dreamer, encouraging her daughter in 1958 to enroll at the American Academy for Dramatic Arts.

Live television drama was flourishing in New York in the early 1950s, and Bancroft appeared in 50 shows in two years. "It was the greatest school that one could go to," she said in 1997. "You learn to be concentrated and focused."

In mid-career Bancroft attended the Actors Studio to heighten her understanding of the acting craft. Later she studied at the     American Film Institute&#39;s Directing Workshop for Women at UCLA. In 1980 she directed a feature, "Fatso," starring     Dom DeLuise. It received modest attention.

Among her notable portrayals: a potential suicide in "The Slender Thread"; Mary Magdalene in Franco Zeffirelli&#39;s miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth"; actress Madge Kindle in "The Elephant Man"; Anthony Hopkins&#39; pen pal in "84 Charing Cross Road"; feminist U.S. senator in "G.I. Jane"; the Miss Havisham role in a modernized "Great Expectations."

Despite all her memorable performances, Bancroft was remembered most for Mrs. Robinson. In 2003 she admitted that nearly everyone discouraged her from undertaking the role "because it was all about sex with a younger man." She viewed the character as having unfulfilled dreams and having been relegated to a conventional life with a conventional husband.

She added: "Film critics said I gave a voice to the fear we all have: that we&#39;ll reach a certain point in our lives, look around and realize that all the things we said we&#39;d do and become will never come to be — and that we&#39;re ordinary."

&#39;Sweetheart of the Fighting Fronts&#39; dies at 92

Monday, July 11, 2005; Posted: 1:21 p.m. EDT (17:21 GMT)

MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Frances Langford, whose steamy rendition of "I&#39;m in the Mood for Love" captivated soldiers when she was part of Bob Hope&#39;s USO tours during World War II, died Monday at the age of 92.

Langford had been ill with congestive heart failure and died at her home in Jensen Beach, said her lawyer, Evans Crary Jr.

Langford, a recording artist, radio star and actress from the 1930s to 1950s, joined Hope&#39;s troupe to boost wartime morale at military bases and hospitals in Great Britain, Italy, North Africa and the South Pacific. She also entertained new generations of soldiers in Korea and Vietnam.

Even with her hair swept up in a bandanna, the 5-foot-1 singer was a glamorous vision of home and became known as the "Sweetheart of the Fighting Fronts."

Her trademark was "I&#39;m in the Mood for Love," written for her for the 1935 movie "Every Night at Eight."

Langford appeared in 30 Hollywood movies, including "Broadway Melody," "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "The Hit Parade." She played herself in her final film, 1954&#39;s "The Glenn Miller Story."

She was also known for her role as the insufferable wife, Blanche, opposite Don Ameche on the popular 1940s radio comedy "The Bickersons."

She recalled in interviews decades later that entertaining the troops "was the greatest thing in my life."

"We were there just to do our job, to help make them laugh and be happy if they could," Langford told The Associated Press in January 2002.

"She was a charming person, very warm-hearted," said Crary, who had known her for more than 70 years. "She was very interested in other people and appreciative of their interest in her."

Born in Lakeland in April 1913, Langford was discovered by bandleader Rudy Vallee when he was in Florida for a performance, and he invited her to be a guest on his radio program.

After a brief stint in the Broadway musical "Here Goes the Bride" in 1931, she moved to Hollywood, where she appeared on Louella Parsons&#39; radio show "Hollywood Hotel" and began to appear in movies.

She was singing on Hope&#39;s "Pepsodent Show" when he held his first military program at March Field in Riverside, California, in 1941. The response was so positive he continued broadcasting from training bases and asked Langford to join him. Soon there were enough soldiers overseas to bring his variety show to them.

Langford wrote a daily newspaper column, "Purple Heart Diary," about her war experiences and later starred in a movie of the same name.

Her first marriage was to actor Jon Hall, who appeared in films such as "The Hurricane" and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves."

After World War II, she was singing in nightclubs when she met outboard motor heir Ralph Evinrude. They married in 1955 and moved to her 400-acre estate in Jensen Beach, 100 miles north of Miami.

The couple built a Polynesian-themed restaurant and marina on the Indian River called the Outrigger Resort. She entertained locals and celebrities, including Hope, until Evinrude died in 1986 and she sold the property.

Langford kept up her pastimes of boating and sport fishing and her collection of mounted tuna, marlin and other fish adorns the wall of the Florida Oceanographic Society&#39;s visitor center in nearby Stuart that is named after her.

In 1994, she married Harold Stuart, assistant secretary of the Air Force under Harry Truman. They spent summers on Canada&#39;s Georgian Island, traveling from Florida aboard her 110-foot yacht.

She is survived by her husband. She had no children.

Port Halcyon carries her CD in the Market.

KittenWithaWhip,Jul 11 2005, 01:05 PM wrote:

It&#39;s really stupid of me to keep thinking these icons will always be there to reminisce.&nbsp; I&#39;m always surprised when one of my sentimental favorites dies.
I didn&#39;t know she was married to Evinrude, though.&nbsp; I wonder how I missed that?

[snapback]69951[/snapback]

This thread always depresses me a little. Being 70 years old, I&#39;m seeing a lot of my favorite actors, singers, musicians - entertainment icons from my distant youth - shuffling off this mortal coil. I was happy to read the other day in the San Diego Union/Evening Tribune, that Patti Page is still with us.