Animated Views Celebrity Obituary Thread

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Re: Pete Postlethwaite Dead at 64!

Post by Darkblade » January 3rd, 2011, 2:46 pm

Crud, its 2009 all over again. :cry:

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Re: Pete Postlethwaite Dead at 64!

Post by ibrmacf » January 4th, 2011, 10:38 am

Exactly how is his last name pronounced? I've always pronounced it "Postal-Waith", but I'm not from the UK.

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Post by Ben » January 4th, 2011, 11:14 am

Posslethwait. :)

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Last of the Nelson Family ('Ozzie & Harriet') passes on...

Post by GeorgeC » January 12th, 2011, 10:11 am

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni6819623/

Sad news...

The last surviving member of the classic Ozzie & Harriet Nelson family, David Nelson, has passed away from colon cancer. He was 74.

David Nelson was the eldest son of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, the headliners of a family sitcom that aired for 14 years on TV. Ozzie's and Harriet's act preceded Desi Arnaz's and Lucille Ball's as the example of an American family that had frequent humorous incidents. Starting on radio, they later migrated to TV and brought along their real-life sons to act in the series.

Patriarch Ozzie Nelson died first in 1975 followed by youngest son, Ricky, in 1985. Ricky Nelson died in a plane crash and was suspected of using drugs at the time of the accident. Later investigations cleared him of those suspicions and it was determined that a cabin heater malfunction was the likely cause of the fire that led to the plane crash. His twin sons, Gunnar and Matthew, followed in their father's footsteps and became musicians. Daughter Tracy became an actress.

Matriach Harriet Nelson passed away in 1994.

For many years, the surviving member of the family quartet, David, was the keeper of the family memory until his death on Tuesday.

So ends another era in the Golden Age of Hollywood. Sitcom families haven't been as friendly since the end of the Nelson family...



P.S. -- I wasn't a huge Ozzie & Harriet fan but caught reruns of the series when it aired on Disney Channel. The series has been around for over 50 years and is an American icon!

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RIP, Susannah York, "Lara" from Superman (1978)

Post by GeorgeC » January 15th, 2011, 9:56 pm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan ... tle-cancer

She's better appreciated by older filmgoers in 1960s films such as Tom Jones and They Shoot Horses...

Younger audiences including yours truly knew her as Lara, the mother of Kal-El from the Superman movie series of the late 1970s and 1980s.

Susannah York passed away on Saturday due to complications from bone marrow cancer.

She was 72.



Quote taken from her IMDB profile --

"The Superman films were just a lot of fun. One didn't take them very seriously. The draw as far as I was concerned was Marlon Brando, and the people were all very enjoyable to work with. There's not a lot I can say about what went into the performance. I suppose it's good to be seen in a film that is going to be very popular and it's quite flattering to be chosen to play the mother of Superman! The special effects were fabulous and you were very aware of all that going on - tramping over polystyrene and so on."

GeorgeC

RIP, Boyd Kirkland, animation producer on Batman and X-Men

Post by GeorgeC » January 29th, 2011, 11:06 pm

http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stories/ ... /index.htm

Veteran animator producer/writer/director Boyd Kirkland died at UCLA medical center this past Thursday while waiting for a new lung.

During his 30+-year career, Kirkland specialized in animated adaptations of superheroes from both the Marvel and DC stables.

Kirkland was best known for his directorial duties on Batman: The Animated Series as well as writing numerous episodes of X-Men: Evolution. Kirkland was the writer, producer, and director of the second Batman animated movie, SubZero.

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Post by Randall » January 30th, 2011, 12:29 am

Wow, I'm stunned. So sad to hear this. He has a ton of things in his filmography, and was a big part of a lot of shows I liked.

GeorgeC

Re: RIP, Boyd Kirkland, animation producer on Batman and X-Men

Post by GeorgeC » January 30th, 2011, 12:54 am

The sad thing is that there is very little biographical information on Boyd Kirkland, Rand.

I couldn't find date of birth, name of wife, or all his kids (if he had more than one) on either his IMDB or Wikipedia entries.

I know he was raised Mormon... There are lots of practicing and lapsed Mormons in the entertainment industry besides the Osmond Family.

He has a son named Kyle who I think produced a webpage for him years ago. It was a Bat-centric web page that talked about his work on the Batman animated TV series (1990s) and SubZero.


Big loss... I'm sure the friends and colleagues he made over 30 years in the business are going to miss him...

GeorgeC

RIP, John Barry, composer of Bond music

Post by GeorgeC » January 31st, 2011, 12:14 pm

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_b ... -dies.html

John Barry died age 77 at his home in New York on Sunday.

Barry is best known as the composer of much of the iconic Bond music including the character's ubiquitous theme music. Barry also composed for many other Hollywood films including a few bombs such as "Raise the Titanic." Even his music for the films that weren't great successes is considered iconic and an essential part of any movie soundtrack enthusiast's collection.

*******
The Ship's bow breaking the waters as she hits air again for the first time in 75 years just isn't the same without the "(Titanic theme) Prelude" music Barry wrote.

So ends another era in entertainment...

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Post by Ben » January 31st, 2011, 2:17 pm

Oh. :(

I heard his name being mentioned on the radio earlier today but didn't catch what it was for. I thought he may have been involved in a song they played, or something, as this is unexpected...only 77, unfortunately.

Actually, though, Monty Norman is the credited composer of the Bond Theme...Barry orchestrated it and then became synonymous with the scoring sound of the Bond pictures. It's an easy (and often made) mistake, and indeed there was much wrangling between Norman and Barry, who complained his contribution hadn't been taken into account (he would have preferred a co-credit).

Barry's scores were always noticeable due to the languid, majestic pacing and inherent epic nature. The Bond films were made much larger in scope merely by his broad notes, while even other, not as successful films (the Titanic picture George mentions, and The Black Hole to mention one other) were lifted by his musical cues.

It's a shame he didn't seem to have been working as much lately. He was down to compose The Incredibles (indeed, his Bond music was used in the teaser), but was switched for unknown reasons, even though Michael Giacchino went for a very Bondian/Barry-esque sound (especially when Bob breaks into Syndrome's lair).

His music for Out Of Africa and Dances With Wolves is as iconic as those by perhaps more celebrated composers, and his is a sound that we'll no doubt continue to hear pastiched by others, not least in David Arnold's Bond scores.

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Post by Vernadyn » January 31st, 2011, 8:16 pm

That's too bad. Hopefully John Williams (who's older) isn't close behind.

I remember reading an interview with Clive Cussler who wrote the book that Raise the Titanic was based on, and he said that the only good parts of the movie were the special effects and Barry's score. I haven't watched the film myself, but the score is quite powerful on its own.

I think Brad Bird did an interview on AICN where he said that Barry left The Incredibles because he found it difficult to revisit a musical style that he felt he had already done. There might have been more to it than that, though speculation would be futile.

Speaking of David Arnold, the man gave a tribute to Barry on the BBC website.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12324183

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Re: RIP, John Barry, composer of Bond music

Post by droosan » February 2nd, 2011, 10:35 pm

:cry:

Among film composers, his was a truly original and unique 'voice'.

His James Bond scores are iconic, of course (particularly On Her Majesty's Secret Service) .. and are still widely-influential. But I also very much enjoyed his later 'introspective' style (as in Out of Africa, Chaplin or Dances With Wolves), as well.

Although he never scored an animated film, he did compose several great themes for Disney's The Black Hole, and contributed mightily toward making Howard the Duck seem more than the B-movie it truly was.

He also released a couple of albums of original material about ten years ago: Eternal Echoes and The Beyondness of Things .. both of which are excellent 'quiet reflecton' music for a rainy day.
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GeorgeC

Post by GeorgeC » February 13th, 2011, 11:51 am

Hey guys,

I recently got contacted by Boyd Kirkland's son via PM.

I don't know why, but he said that the post system wouldn't let him post links so I'm going to pass these on for interested parties...

Contents of Eulogy presented by Kirkland's brother, Brent, at Boyd Kirkland's funeral service on February 1, 2011.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id ... 2yF8jrJFuc

According to Kyle Kirkland, the eulogy should fill in a lot of the biographical gaps that none of the websites have (that I've looked at).

Direct link to an Amazon.com store where Boyd Kirkland's next-of-kin are selling his books to raise some money for his widow --
http://www.amazon.com/gp/shops/storefro ... 134P0DGZ6Z

Looks like there are some good books up for sale that I'm sure some of us would be interested. There's stuff I already have but quite a bit that's new to me.

Wish I could help out but I'm definitely in the broke department for now...

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Post by Randall » February 13th, 2011, 4:08 pm

Thanks for helping them with the posting, George. To discourage spammers, you have to have a certain amount of posts before you can post links. Of course, these are good links.

I'll maybe buy a book or two myself.

Watchers should look to get Hanna-Barbera's World of Super Adventure, as you don't see it available often (I bought my copy over 15 years ago); but there are lots of nice animaiton and comic strip books there. Oh! He's got the hardcover Al Williamson Flash Gordon book too! (I've got that as well; but I do spot a few other tempting ones...)
Last edited by Randall on February 13th, 2011, 4:20 pm, edited 3 times in total.

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Post by Randall » February 14th, 2011, 2:09 pm

FYI: Initially, these sales were set to only ship to the US. I contacted the family through Amazon, and Boyd's son Aaron has changed their listings to allow for at least Canadian shipping as well.

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