Departed Cultural Icons - 2019

[chironex]

Dick Miller, 1928-2019. Veteran actor best known for Gremlins and The Terminator. 175 movies and over 2000 TV appearances.
James Ingram, 1952-2019, singer-songwriter who also co-wrote with Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson.
Kevin Barnett, 1987-2019, comedian and writer, nown for co-creating Rel.
Jo Andres, 1954-2019, filmmaker/choreographer.
Bob Einstein, 1942-2019, actor and comedy writer.

[Fairley B. Strange]

Clive Swift, best known for portraying the ever hen-pecked husband of Hyacinth has kicked the 'bouquet'.

https://amp.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/keeping-up-appearances-star-clive-swift-who-played-richard-bucket-dead-at-82/news-story/f5875867abf15820bf0f641fd1f8c997

[Banfili]

Clive Swift, best known for portraying the ever hen-pecked husband of Hyacinth has kicked the 'bouquet'.

https://amp.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/keeping-up-appearances-star-clive-swift-who-played-richard-bucket-dead-at-82/news-story/f5875867abf15820bf0f641fd1f8c997

Alas, Hyacinth will be without her much put-upon Richard! For some reason I always wanted to call Hyacinth and Richard's child Jonquil!

[Mercury Wells]

Julie Adams: Creature from the Black Lagoon star dies.

Julie Adams, the damsel in distress in classic monster movie Creature from the Black Lagoon, has died, aged 92.

The 1954 film inspired last year's Oscar-winner The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro, who tweeted about the news.

Adams died early on Sunday in Los Angeles, her son Mitch Danton told The Hollywood Reporter.

(c) BBC '19

[Mercury Wells]

Frank Robinson, Major League Baseball's first black manager, dies at 83

Legendary baseball Hall of Famer Frank Robinson - the first African-American to manage a professional team - has died aged 83, baseball officials say.
After winning Most Valuable Player awards in both US leagues - the only player in history to do so - he went on to manage Cleveland in 1975.
With a total of 586, he is 10th on the list of the most home runs hit in a major league career.
Robinson, who holds countless other records, died at home in California.
Since his debut, more than half of all teams have had a black manager.

(c) BBC '19.

[RJBowman]

Scrooge and Oliver Warbucks are dead. Albert Finney has passed away.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47175304?ns_mchannel=social&ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_source=facebook&ns_campaign=bbcnews&fbclid=IwAR0-G2Jp7llmxV7ZqA_85uOZikwLqCNIgLM1pF9BFiPry_MZ67GHYuyNeXc&fbclid=IwAR3ulVvDqMjAQI9r8PdJWSwpPdvpD2dZ1yINSZSnsCDqvjz2Ulb9J2ccndY

[Banfili]

One can lament the passing of Oliver Warbucks - Scrooge takes a little more effort! On the whole a respectable body of work left behind!

[RJBowman]

Sorry; false report. Man died five years ago.

[von Corax]

Sorry; false report. Man died five years ago.

Who did? Not Albert Finney...

[RJBowman]

Is was Sid Caesar. His obit from four years ago is making rounds again on Facebook.

Here's one that seems to be current:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/13/world/nasa-mars-opportunity-rover-trnd/index.html

The NASA Opportunity Rover is no longer signalling back from Mars. They have been known to shut down and then spontaneously come back online years later, but generally this is a sign that the probe is dead.

[RJBowman]

Well, it's a banner day; reportedly Lyndon LaRouche has died.

https://boingboing.net/2019/02/12/lyndon-larouche-1923-2019.html

Funny thing; Wikipedia has been edited to reflect his passing, but no major news outlet seems to want to give him any coverage, even in death.

He was a conspiracy theorist who built his own organization and had thousands of followers. He started out as a Marxist, and then switched to being a wacko anti-communist, years after it was in style to be one.

In the 80s, he ran for president in the Democratic primary. During the Obama administration, he distributed posters of Obama with a Hitler mustache; the press tried to blame Republicans for the posters.

He once ran a slate of his supporters for public office in Chicago, and, lucked out, when there was a backlash against Irish-American and Polish-American political machines that dominated city politics. As it happened, his candidates all had boring English surnames and got enough votes to win a few offices.

He was even mocked in a "Lyndon LaRouche Theater" sketch on Saturday Night Live, in which LaRouche (played by one the the SNL players) introduced a dramatization of one of his paranoid fantasies.

I don't know if he will be missed. He was was certainly famous, and held a place in popular culture. His influence on world events was minimal.

[Banfili]

A day late, but, Gordon Banks, former English national football (soccer, for we colonials!) goalkeeper, who had to give the game away after losing an eye in a motor vehicle accident.

"Gordon Banks OBE was an English professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He made 628 appearances during a 15-year career in the Football League, and won 73 caps for England, highlighted by starting every game of the nation's 1966 World Cup victory.
30 December 1937 - 12 February 2019"

 

[Fairley B. Strange]

Mars Rover "Opportunity"
Officially dead after failing to regain power from the Martian dust-storm that put him into hibernation mode.

https://xkcd.com/695/

[morozow]

Sergey Yursky died on February 8, 2019 in Moscow.

A wonderful Soviet actor. Less they become.

[von Corax]

Mars Rover "Opportunity"
Officially dead after failing to regain power from the Martian dust-storm that put him into hibernation mode.

https://xkcd.com/695/

Also:
https://xkcd.com/2111/

[Banfili]

Mars Rover "Opportunity"
Officially dead after failing to regain power from the Martian dust-storm that put him into hibernation mode.

https://xkcd.com/695/

Also:
https://xkcd.com/2111/

For a little machine only planned to operate for 90 days, it did a bloody good job - in fact both Mars rovers excelled, exceeding all expectations!

[J. Wilhelm]

Well, if we're going to talk about machines, then this is the latest departure: Airbus pulls the plug on the A380 Jumbo Jet, but still will continue production into 2021 to fulfill existing orders. The much older Boeing 747 and derivatives will still be made indefinitely, but experts say the 747 on its way out too... For the moment the challenger for the crown of biggest passenger carrier has lost to the old 70s king.

Image CC BY-SA 2.0

As of January 2019, Airbus had received 313 firm orders and delivered 234 aircraft; Emirates is the biggest A380 customer with 123 ordered, of which 109 had been delivered.[3] In February 2019 the company announced its plans to stop the production of the A380 by 2021. The decision was made after its main customer, Emirates, significantly reduced its orders and due to new orders being dried up as the market moved increasingly towards efficient point-to-point airliners.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/14/business/jumbo-jet-sales-decline/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A380

[von Corax]

Karl Otto Lagerfeld (10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019), fashion designer, who once described himself as "down to Earth — just not this Earth."

[J. Wilhelm]

Karl Otto Lagerfeld (10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019), fashion designer, who once described himself as "down to Earth — just not this Earth."

I'm not a fashion follower (instead, as a Steampunk I make my own), but Lagerfeld did re-invent Chanel in 1983.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/karl-lagerfeld-dead-intl/index.html


"<Chanel was> a sleeping beauty. Not even a beautiful one. She snored," he said of the fashion house in "Lagerfeld Confidential," a 2007 documentary. "So I was to revive a dead woman."

Chanel Fall 2008 Haute Couture Fashion Show (full)

[Mercury Wells]

Peter Tork: Tributes to Monkees musician who has died aged 77

Peter Tork, a member of the made-for-TV pop group The Monkees, has died at the age of 77.

"There are no words right now... heartbroken over the loss of my Monkee brother Peter Tork," bandmate Micky Dolenz tweeted.

Tork, who played keyboard and bass for the group, was diagnosed with a rare form of tongue cancer in 2009.

The Monkees were huge in the 1960s, with hits like I'm A Believer and Daydream Believer.

A post on Tork's official Facebook page said "the devastating news" was being shared "with beyond-heavy and broken hearts".

It said: "Our friend, mentor, teacher, and amazing soul, Peter Tork, has passed from this world."

A message posted on the band's official Twitter page said that Tork had "passed peacefully" and invited fans to share their favourite memories by adding their comments.

(c) BBC '19.

[Banfili]

Quite a fan of the Monkees in the day - some of their songs and music were, and still are, quite good and listenable, and I still like to play the old vinyl I have of theirs.

Strangely enough, one of the first things that came to mind when I heard the news tonight, was how well the Monkees and the good old Banana Splits Adventure Hour worked well as a double feature on afternoon children's television when I was younger.

And I have now created a self-inflicted earworm of the Banana Splits theme song - dammit!
10 points for whoever can remember their names!

[Mercury Wells]

John Haynes obituary

Publisher of the Haynes workshop manuals that fuelled a boom in DIY car repairs.

John Haynes, who has died aged 80, created a publishing empire out of the enormous success of the car workshop manuals that bore his name. In all, 200m have been sold since 1966, covering the maintenance and repair of more than 1,000 different models.

His formula was simple: dismantle and rebuild a car, illustrate with clear black and white pictures and diagrams, then describe the process in detail, in a language that the lay person can understand. With the familiar yellow and red logo, impressive cut-away drawings, fault diagnosis and step-by-step approach to every possible task – be it changing a bulb or dismantling and rebuilding a complete engine – the Haynes manuals captured the DIY ethos of the 1960s, 70s and 80s: a more self-reliant time, when maintaining the family saloon was still a bastion of male pride and the vehicles most people drove were simple, logical and analogue.

(c) Martin Buckley/The Guardian '19.

[RJBowman]

Ross Lowell, inventor of gaffer's tape, is dead.
https://www.dpreview.com/news/6550119087/ross-lowell-founder-of-lowel-light-and-the-man-behind-gaffer-tape-dead-at-92?fbclid=IwAR1ox10vL-H6l3AHGaWT-6Ch7wGnwVEhi1vLT8m54qztpdNPgZzzcF55goc

You don't think that gaffer's tape is a significant cultural contribution? Then you have never worked in theater or film.

[Banfili]

Ross Lowell, inventor of gaffer's tape, is dead.

You don't think that gaffer's tape is a significant cultural contribution? Then you have never worked in theater or film.

Gaffer Tape is like Duct Tape - the world is held together by miles and miles of both - one cannot survive in life with one or the other, or both!

[Fairley B. Strange]

Gaffer/Duct/Duck/Consensual-activity* Tape


Like the Force it is,
Dark side it has,
Light side it has,
Holds the whole universe together it does


*

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

it rhymes but I'm not supposed to call it thst any more