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The following are 12
personalities (some more familiar than others) that have
passed on in the past several weeks. Most recent death is
shown at the top. Note: some deaths are not reported for
days, even weeks. That is why some obit updates do not
appear on the top. Once again, obits are listed in order of
date of death, most recent date on top.
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July 25, 1923 - July 22, 2008 |
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Emmy-winning actress Estelle Getty, best known as a wise-cracking octogenarian on the popular 1980s and '90s sitcom "The Golden Girls," died. She was 84. Getty, who spent four decades toiling in show business before winning fame and critical recognition as Bea Arthur's sassy, 80-year-old mother on the hit show, had been suffering from dementia. Born Estelle Scher in New York City in 1923, Getty wanted to be an entertainer from an early age, despite her small size and the initial objections of her Polish immigrant parents. She got her start as a comic at resorts in New York state's Catskill mountains and pursued her dream as an actress in regional theater and off-Broadway productions while raising two sons and working office jobs to make ends meet. She won a breakthrough role in a production of "Torch Song Trilogy" that brought her to the attention of Hollywood. She was ultimately cast as the oldest of four female retirees living together on "Golden Girls" even though she was slightly younger than her screen daughter. Getty won two Emmys for her role as Sophia Petrillo on the show.
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May 20, 1946 - July 12, 2008 |
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Bobby Murcer, a five-time All-Star outfielder who spent nearly four decades with the New York Yankees as a player, executive and announcer, died due to complications from a malignant brain tumor. He was 62. "Bobby Murcer was a born Yankee, a great guy, very well-liked and a true friend of mine," owner George Steinbrenner said. "I extend my deepest sympathies to his wife Kay, their children and grandchildren. I will really miss the guy." Murcer was diagnosed with a brain tumor on Christmas Eve 2006 after having headaches. He had surgery that week in Houston and doctors later determined the tumor was malignant. Determined to be around his beloved Yankees, Murcer returned to the broadcast booth last year and briefly this season. The only person to play with Mickey Mantle and Don Mattingly, the popular Murcer hit .277 with 252 home runs and 1,043 RBIs in 17 seasons with the Yankees, San Francisco and the Chicago Cubs. He made the All-Star team in both leagues and won a Gold Glove. Murcer retired in June 1983 and moved into the broadcast booth that season, working as a color analyst on radio. He served one year as assistant general manager of the Yankees, returned as an announcer in 1989 and stayed in the booth. "Sometimes you idolize somebody and you get to meet them and you're disappointed. But I've never met a more genuine person," Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay said. "What he went through the last couple of years no one should ever have to go through, but he went through it with such grace. He was an amazing, amazing guy. He was a piece of work in the best way possible."
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June 1, 1955 - July 12, 2008 |
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Tony Snow, a conservative political commentator who seemed to relish his brief stint as President Bush's White House press secretary, died in Washington, D.C., of colon cancer at the age of 53. The former Bush spokesman had been hospitalized for several weeks, telling friends he was having difficulty recovering from an intestinal problem. As press secretary, Snow almost always wore a yellow "Live Strong" Lance Armstrong bracelet with his suit at the White House podium. As a former newsman himself, he charmed the White House press corps and was widely liked by reporters. Snow's last on-camera White House briefing was Sept 12, 2007, when he said, "You know, everybody talks about what a horrible job it is to brief the press. I love these briefings and I'm really going to miss them." Snow served as White House press secretary for 17 months, but left the White House podium shortly after being diagnosed with a reoccurence of cancer. When he resigned as Bush's chief spokesman last September, Snow didn't cite his health, instead arguing he had taken a pay cut to work at the White House where he was paid more than $168,000 a year. Snow explained he simply "ran out of money" and his White House job doesn't provide the salary he made in prior years as a Fox News anchor and conservative pundit. He later joined CNN in April as a commentator and did some other broadcasting work. "Cancer has nothing to do with this decision," Snow said in April, 2007. Snow thanked reporters, White House colleagues, family, and friends for their endless support saying, "Anybody who does not believe that thoughts and prayers make a difference, they're just wrong."
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September 7, 1908 - July 11, 2008 |
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Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, the medical pioneer who was the driving force in developing the field of cardiac surgery, died of natural causes at the Methodist Hospital in Houston. He was 99. In his highly influential career, DeBakey performed the first coronary artery bypass surgery and the first carotid endarterectomy to prevent strokes. He developed the pump that is the key part of the heart-and-lung machines used on patients during heart surgery, and he developed an artificial heart that keeps patients alive while they wait for their own heart to improve. "His contributions have been enormous, and he will leave an amazing legacy," said Dr. Claude Lenfant, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. When World War II broke, DeBakey enlisted and joined the U.S. surgeon general's staff in Europe. He observed that many soldiers died because their wounds could not be treated until they reached a hospital well behind the front lines. "I proposed to the surgeon general that we make mobile teams out of the personnel at these hospitals and call them auxiliary surgical units, they could be moved where needed," he told the Journal of the American Medical Association. He also advocated specialized medical and surgical follow-up systems for military veterans, a program that eventually became the Veterans Affairs health care system. On New Year's Eve 2005, DeBakey suffered a dissecting aortic aneurysm and became the oldest survivor of an operation he devised to repair torn aortas. In a stunning account in The New York Times almost a year later, the physician who had saved so many lives admitted that the pain of the initial incident was so searing that he accepted death as a better alternative.
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August 4, 1942 - June 29, 2008 |
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Don S. Davis, best known for playing Major General/Lieutenant General George S. Hammond in the science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, and earlier for playing Major Garland Briggs on the television series Twin Peaks, died of a heart attack. He was 65. Davis earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in theater and art from Southwest Missouri State College. He received a Master's Degree in theatre from the Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1970. He taught for several years before returning to SIU to complete a Ph.D. in theatre. He began working in the film industry in the 1980s, while teaching at the University of British Columbia. In 1987 he stopped teaching in order to pursue acting full-time. He also guest starred in several TV shows, including MacGyver, The West Wing and the X-Files. Davis also had starring roles in motion pictures, including Miracle, The 6th Day, Best In Show, Con Air, Cliffhanger and most recently in Uwe Boll's latest film, Far Cry. Davis also served three years on active duty in the United States Army, entering as a Second Lieutenant. He rose to the rank of Captain and was stationed in Korea before completing his required tour of active duty. Davis's final Stargate appearance will be in Stargate: Continuum, the SG-1 DVD movie that will be released July 29.
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May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008 |
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Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs, dirty words and the demise of humanity, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital. He was 71. Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems, died after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains. Known for his edgy, provocative material developed over 50 years, the bald, bearded Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine called "Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television." A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court. The Grammy-winning Carlin remained an active presence on the comedy circuit. Carlin was scheduled to receive the John F. Kennedy Center's prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in November. Carlin wrote three best-selling books, won four Grammy Awards, recorded 22 comedy albums, headlined 14 HBO television specials, and hosted hundreds of variety shows. One was the first episode of "Saturday Night Live" in 1975, when he was high on cocaine. Carlin told Playboy in 2005 that he looked forward to an afterlife where he could watch the decline of civilization on a "heavenly CNN." "The world is a big theater-in-the round as far as I'm concerned, and I'd love to watch it spin itself into oblivion," he said. "Tune in and watch the human adventure."
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March 8, 1922 - June 17, 2008 |
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Cyd Charisse, the long-legged beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died after suffering an apparent heart attack. She was 86. She appeared in dramatic films, but her fame came from the Technicolor musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Classically trained, she could dance anything, from a pas de deux in 1946's "Ziegfeld Follies" to the lowdown Mickey Spillane satire of 1953's "The Band Wagon" (with Astaire). She also forged a popular song-and-dance partnership on television and in nightclub appearances with her husband, singer Tony Martin. Astaire, who danced with her in "The Band Wagon" and "Silk Stockings," said of Charisse in a 1983 interview: "She wasn't a tap dancer, she's just beautiful, trained, very strong in whatever we did. When we were dancing, we didn't know what time it was." "Singin' in the Rain" marked a breakthrough. When producer Arthur Freed was dissatisfied with another dancer who had been cast, Charisse inherited the role and danced with Kelly in the "Broadway Melody" number that climaxed the movie. She stunned critics and audiences with her 25-foot Chinese silk scarf that floated in the air with the aid of a wind machine. Charisse also danced with Kelly in "Brigadoon," "It's Always Fair Weather" and "Invitation to the Dance." She missed what might have been her greatest opportunity: to appear with Kelly in the 1951 Academy Award winner, "An American in Paris." She was pregnant, and Leslie Caron was cast in the role. In 1996, Charisse recalled her reaction on entering the movies: "Ballet is a closed world and very rigid; MGM was a fairyland. You'd walk down the lot, seeing all these fabulous movies being made with the greatest talent in the world sitting there. It was a dream to walk through that lot."
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May 7, 1950 - June 13, 2008 |
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Tim Russert, who became a household name in American political discourse as host of NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday talk show, died on the job of a heart attack. He was 58. Russert, known for his tough interviews of many of the leading U.S. political figures of the past two decades, was the NBC News Washington bureau chief. Russert became a news subject himself in 2007, when he provided key testimony at the CIA leak trial of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby. NBC interrupted its programming for a special report by former anchorman Tom Brokaw, who announced in a voice heavy with emotion that Russert had died at the network's Washington bureau after returning from a trip to Italy with his family. Russert was prerecording a segment for Sunday's "Meet the Press" program when he collapsed. NBC said Dr. Michael Newman, Russert's physician, determined that cholesterol plaque ruptured in an artery, causing blood flow to the heart to be blocked by a clot. The network said an autopsy shortly after his death showed he had an enlarged heart and significant coronary artery disease. It was as host of "Meet the Press" since 1991 that Russert became a leading voice in American politics by mixing his cheerful on-air persona with the tough questioning of political guests including Bush and leading personalities of the 2008 presidential campaign. Russert was also a best-selling author. "Big Russ and Me," described his childhood in Buffalo, New York, and his relationship with his father. "Here was a guy who, in a really affable way, was able to do something that news anchors don't really do: provide cogent, understandable, compelling analysis of really complex issues," said Syracuse University media expert Robert Thompson.
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September 24, 1921 - June 7, 2008 |
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Jim McKay, the venerable and eloquent sportscaster thrust into the role of telling Americans about the tragedy at the 1972 Munich Olympics, died of natural causes at his farm in Monkton, Md.. He was 87. The broadcaster who considered horse racing his favorite sport died only hours before Big Brown attempted to win a Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes. He was host of ABC's influential "Wide World of Sports" for more than 40 years, starting in 1961. The weekend series introduced viewers to all manner of strange, compelling and far-flung sports events. The show provided an international reach long before exotic backdrops became a staple of sports television. McKay, understated, dignified and with a clear eye for detail, also covered 12 Olympics, but none more memorably than the Summer Games in Munich, Germany. He was the anchor when events turned grim with the news that Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes. It was left to McKay to tell Americans when a commando raid to rescue the athletes ended in tragedy. "They're all gone," McKay said. The terse, haunting comment was replayed many times through the years when the events of Munich were chronicled. He won both a news and sports Emmy Award for his coverage of the Munich Olympics in addition to the prestigious George Polk award. Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Universal Sports and Olympics, worked with McKay for six years at ABC Sports. "He was truly the most respected and admired sportscaster of his generation and defined how the stories of sports can and should be covered," he said in a statement. "While we all know what an absolute titan he was in his chosen field, I will always remember him as an extraordinary human being guided by a strong moral compass."
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August 25, 1917 - June 2, 2008 |
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Mel Ferrer, the tall, darkly handsome star of such classic films as "Lili," "War and Peace" and "The Sun Also Rises," as well as producer and director of movies starring his then-wife, Audrey Hepburn, has died at age 90. He had been in failing health for the past six months and had recently moved to the home from his ranch in Carpinteria, California. Ferrer's most impressive film role came in 1953 in "Lili." He played a crippled carnival puppeteer with whom a French orphan (played by Leslie Caron) falls in love. He also won critical acclaim as Luis Bello in Robert Rossen's 1951 depiction of the public and private life of a bullfighter in "The Brave Bulls," based on a Tom Lea book, and starred opposite Hepburn in 1956's "War and Peace." In later years, he turned more to directing and producing for movies and TV. "Acting, at times, depresses Mel," Hepburn once said. "Directing lifts him. He's so relaxed at it that I just know it is the job he loves." He and Hepburn became engaged in 1954 when they appeared together in the New York play "Ondine." They married later that year in Burgenstock, Switzerland. The pair divorced in 1968 and Ferrer married his fourth wife, Elizabeth Soukhotine, in 1971. She survives him. In all, he appeared in more than 100 films and made-for-television movies, directed nine films and produced nine more.
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December 30, 1928 - June 2, 2008 |
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Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive "shave and a haircut, two bits" rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died after months of ill health. He was 79. Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. The legendary singer and performer, known for his homemade square guitar, dark glasses and black hat, was an inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, had a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame, and received a lifetime achievement award in 1999 at the Grammy Awards. Diddley appreciated the honors he received, "but it didn't put no figures in my checkbook." "If you ain't got no money, ain't nobody calls you honey," he quipped. The name Bo Diddley came from other youngsters when he was growing up in Chicago, he said in a 1999 interview. "I don't know where the kids got it, but the kids in grammar school gave me that name," he said, adding that he liked it so it became his stage name. Other times, he gave somewhat differing stories on where he got the name. Some experts believe a possible source for the name is a one-string instrument used in traditional blues music called a diddley bow. His first single, "Bo Diddley," introduced record buyers in 1955 to his signature rhythm: bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp, often summarized as "shave and a haircut, two bits." The B side, "I'm a Man," with its slightly humorous take on macho pride, also became a rock standard. Diddley's other major songs included, "Say Man," "You Can't Judge a Book by Its Cover," "Shave and a Haircut," "Uncle John," "Who Do You Love?" and "The Mule." Diddley won attention from a new generation in 1989 when he took part in the "Bo Knows" ad campaign for Nike, built around football and baseball star Bo Jackson. Commenting on Jackson's guitar skills, Diddley turned to the camera and said, "He don't know Diddley." ...
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February 15, 1927 - May 29, 2008 |
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Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to "The Carol Burnett Show" and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in "Blazing Saddles," died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago. He was 81. Burnett and Korman developed into the perfect pair with their burlesques of classic movies such as "Gone With the Wind" and soap operas like "As the World Turns" (their version was called "As the Stomach Turns"). Korman revealed the secret to the long-running show's success in a 2005 interview: "We were an ensemble, and Carol had the most incredible attitude. I've never worked with a star of that magnitude who was willing to give so much away." Burnett was devastated by Korman's death, said her assistant, Angie Horejsi. "She loved Harvey very much," Horejsi said. In their '70s, he and Tim Conway, one of his Burnett show co-stars, toured the country with their show "Tim Conway and Harvey Korman: Together Again." They did 120 shows a year, sometimes as many as six or eight in a weekend. In television, Korman guest-starred in dozens of series including "The Donna Reed Show," "Dr. Kildare," "Perry Mason," "The Wild Wild West," "The Muppet Show," "The Love Boat," "The Roseanne Show" and "Burke's Law." His most memorable film role was as the outlandish Hedley Lamarr (who was endlessly exasperated when people called him Hedy) in Mel Brooks' 1974 Western satire, "Blazing Saddles." "A world without Harvey Korman, it's a more serious world," Brooks told the AP. "It was very dangerous for me to work with him because if our eyes met we'd crash to floor in comic ecstasy. It was comedy heaven to make Harvey Korman laugh."
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